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A    MEMORIAL 


OF 


EDWARD   EVERETT, 


THE  CITY  OF  BOSTON. 


BOSTON: 
PRINTED    BY   ORDER    OF    THE    CITY    COUNCIL 


M  PC  COL  XV. 


COMPILED    BY    J.    M.-BUGBEE, 

THE    MAYOR'S    CLERK. 


PRINTED    BY    J.    E.    FARWELT.    &    COMPANY, 
1*  I!  I  N  T  E  R  S     TO     THE     CITY. 


THIS  volume  has  been  prepared,  under  the  direction 
of  a  Committee  of  the  City  Council,  for  the  purpose  of 
preserving,  in  a  permanent  form,  some  of  the  numerous 
tributes  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  EDWARD  EVERETT, 
whose  great  accomplishments  and  unsurpassed  eloquence 
were  always  devoted  to  the  cause  of  good  morals,  to 
the  elevation  of  the  human  race,  and  to  creating  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen  "  THE  LOVE  OF  LIBERTY  PRO 
TECTED  BY  LAW." 


CONTENTS. 


Memoir  of  Edward  Everett,  by  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale 

Order  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 19 

Proceedings  in  the  Board  of  Aldermen 23 

Proceedings  in  the  Common  Council 28 

Meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall 33 

Address  of  Mayor  Lincoln 35 

Resolutions « 37 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Charles  G.  Loring 40 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop 45 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Bullock 

Committee  on  the  Erection  of  a  Statue 66 

Funeral 71 

Address  of  Rev.  Rufus  Ellis 73 

Procession    79 

Proceedings  of  the  School  Committee   85 

Proceedings  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Public  Library 91 

Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 95 

Speech  of  Senator  Wentworth 100 

Speech  of  Senator  Worcester   101 

Speech  of  Senator  Chadbourne 109 

Speech  of  Mr.  Wells Ill 

Speech  of  Mr.  Scudder ^ 113 

Proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Trade 117 

Remarks  of  E.  S.  Tobey,  Esq " 117 

Remarks  of  J.  M.  Beebe,  Esq 121 

Remarks  of  R.  B.  Forbes,  Esq 123 

Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 127 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop 127 

Remarks  of  Hon.  George  S.  Hillard 134 

Resolutions 142 

Remarks  of  Rev.  S.  K.  Lothrop,  D .  D 143 


6  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Remarks  of  Hon.  John  C.  Gray   160 

Remarks  of  George  Ticknor,  Esq 164 

Remarks  of  Hon.  John  H.  Clifford 177 

Remarks  of  Rev.  James  Walker,  D.  D 186 

Poem  of  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes    189 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr 192 

Remarks  of  Hon.  B.  F.  Thomas 194 

Remarks  of  Hon.  James  Savage  . .   200 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Emory  Washburn    201 

Letter  of  John  G.  Whittier    211 

Proceedings  of  the  Thursday-Evening  Club 217 

Remarks  of  Dr.  J.  Mason  Warren 217 

Remarks  of  Mr.  E.  P.  Whipple 219 

Remarks  of  Bishop  Eastburn 227 

Remarks  of  Dr.  A.A.Gould 231 

Proceedings  of  the  New  England  Historic-Genealogical  Society  .' . . .  235 

Remarks  of  Mr.  John  H.  Sheppard 235 

Resolutions 236 

Proceedings  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society 241 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Stephen  Salisbury 241 

Resolutions 242 

Remarks  of  Rev.  Dr.  Sweetser 244 

Remarks  of  Rev.  Dr.  Hill 248 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Isaac  Davis 254 

Remarks  of  Judge  Barton 256 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Levi  Lincoln 261 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Henry  Chapin 264 

Memorial  Services  at  the  Everett  School   , 271 

Remarks  of  Frederic  F.  Thayer,  Esq 271 

Remarks  of  Rev.  R.  C.  Waterston 278 

Remarks  of  Charles  W.  Slack,  Esq 287 

Proceedings  of  the  Overseers  of  Harvard  University 

Proceedings  of  the  Faculty  of  Harvard  College    297 

Proceedings  of  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  First  Church 298 

Proceedings  of  the  Franklin  Medal  Association   300 

Proceedings  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association 303 

Proceedings  of  the  Franklin  Typographical  Society 305 

Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Charitable  Mechanics'  Association 307 

Proceedings  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association 309 

Proceedings  of  the  Lincoln  Guard   311 

Chronological  Table , 313 


MEMOIR   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT, 


^.^Ti?5x 

*    v 

Library* 


V 


MEMOIR  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 


EDWARD  EVERETT  was  born  in  Dorchester,  Norfolk 
County,  near  Boston,  on  the  llth  of  April,  1794.*  His 
father,  Rev.  Oliver  Everett,  had  resigned  the  ministry 
of  the  New  South  Church,  in  Boston,  in  1792,  and  re 
moved  to  Dorchester,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  On  his  father's  side  Mr.  Everett  was  descended 
from  Richard  Everett,  or  Everard,  of  Dedham,  one  of 
the  early  settlers  in  New-England,  who  is  said  by  tra 
dition  to  have  been  a  soldier  in  the  Low  Countries. 
His  mother  was  Lucy  Hill,  daughter  of  Alexander  Sears 
Hill  of  Boston,  and  Mary  Richey,  and  granddaughter 
of  Alexander  Hill,  a  merchant  of  Boston  through  the 
greater  part  of  a  long  life.  On  both  sides  Mr.  Everett 
was  descended  from  ancestors  almost  all  of  whom  were 
of  the  first  Puritan  emigration.  His  maternal  grand 
mother,  Mary  Richey,  was  born  in  Philadelphia.  His 
grandfather,  Alexander  Sears  Hill,  graduated  at  Har 
vard  College  in  1764,  and  died  in  1771. 

*  In  the  preparation  of  this  sketch,  we  have  in  some  passages  availed  ourselves 
of  a  careful  article  published  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  the  day  after  Mr. 
Everett's  death. 


10  MEMOIR   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Rev.  Oliver  Everett,  the  father  of  Edward  Everett, 
was  the  minister  of  the  New  South  Church,  in  Boston, 
from  1782  to  1792,  when,, with  failing  health,  he  re 
tired  from  the  ministry.  Pie  was  appointed  Judge  of 
the  Circuit  Court  in  1799,  and  is  sometimes  spoken  of 
as  Judge  Everett  in  the  contemporary  journals.  He 
died  on  the  19th  of  November,  1802,  and,  in  the 
spring  of  1803,  his  widow,  with  her  large  young  family 
removed  to  Boston.  Edward  Everett  was  then  a  boy  of 
nine  years  of  age,  and  since  that  time  to  his  death  he 
has  been  nearly  connected,  by  residence  or  by  official 
duty,  with  this  town.  His  mother's  residence  at  that 
time  was  in  the  street  then  known  as  Proctor's  Lane, 
now  the  eastern  part  of  Richmond  Street.  He  was 
placed  at  school  at  the  reading  and  writing  schools  in 
North  Bennet  Street,  under  the  care  of  Master  Ezekiel 
Little  and  Master  John  Tileston.  At  this  "  double 
school,"  in  1804,  he  received  a  Franklin  Medal.  In  that 
year  his  mother  removed  her  residence  to  a  house  now 
standing  in  Richmond  Street,  and  on  the  death  of  her 
grandfather,  Mr.  Hill,  removed  again  to  a  house  in  the 
upper  part  of  Newbury  Street,  now  Washington  Street, 
nearly  opposite  the  head  of  Essex  Street.  About  this  time 
Mr.  Everett's  regular  preparation  for  college  was  begun, 
and  he  was  sent  to  a  private  school,  kept  by  Mr.  Ezekiel 
Webster,  of  New  Hampshire,  a  gentleman,  says  Mr. 
Everett  himself,  "  of  eminent  talent  and  great  worth, 
well  entitled  to  be  remembered  for  his  own  sake,  but 
better  known  as  the  elder  brother  of  Mr.  Daniel  Web 
ster."  On  one  occasion,  during  his  brother's  absence, 


MEMOIR  OF  EDWARD   EVERETT.  H 

Mr.  Daniel  Webster  took  charge  of  the  school  for  a  week. 
It  was  thus  that  an  acquaintance  began,  which  afterwards 
ripened  into  the  closest  regard.  Mr.  Webster  himself 
says  of  it,  [July  21,  1852,]  : 

"  We  now  and  then  see  stretching  across  the  heavens 
a  clear,  blue,  cerulean  sky,  without  cloud,  or  mist,  or 
haze.  And  such  appears  to  me  our  acquaintance,  from 
the  time  when  I  heard  you  for  a  week  recite  your  les 
sons  in  the  little  schoolhouse  in  Short  Street  to  the  date 
hereof."  — 

Few  things,  probably,  were  less  in  the  thought  of 
either,  in  that  schoolhouse,  than  that  the  boy,  as  Gov 
ernor  of  Massachusetts,  would  one  day  sign  the^  commis 
sion  of  his  teacher  as  Senator  of  the  United  States,  or, 
at  a  later  day,  succeed  him  in  the  State  Department. 

In  1805  he  was  sent  to  the  Latin  Grammar  School, 
then  temporarily  under  the*  charge  of  Mr.  Samuel  Cooper 
Thacher,  who  soon  afterwards  left  it  in  the  charge  of 
Mr.  William  Biglow.  At  this  school,  his  classmates,  as 
named  in  its  own  Catalogue,  were  William  Turell  An 
drews,  Samuel  Blagge,  John  Borland,  Charles  Pelham 
Curtis,  Nathaniel  Langdon  Frothingham,  Benjamin  Daniel 
Greene,  Alba  Hayward,  George  Edward  Head,  Harrison 
Gray  Otis,  William  Parke,  Edward  Reynolds,  William 
Smith,  Solomon  Davis  Townsend,  Benjamin  Lincoln 
Weld,  with  two  boys  named  Simpson  whose  other  names 
are  not  given.  At  this  school,  in  1806,  he  received 
another  Franklin  Medal.  In  the  same  year  he  was 
sent  to  Exeter  Academy,  then  under  the  charge  of  Dr. 
Benjamin  Abbot,  with  the  assistance  of  Nathan  Hale  and 


12  MEMOIR   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Alexander  H.  Everett,  Edward  Everett's  older  brother. 
Here  he  remained  till  he  was  fitted  for  Harvard  Col 
lege,  which  he  entered  in  the  summer  of  1807. 

He  graduated  in  1811,  and  entered  immediately  on  the 
study  of  Divinity,  under  the  direction  of  President  Kirk- 
land,  acting,  at  the  same  time,  as  Latin  Tutor.  In  1813 
he  was  invited  to  become  the  minister  of  the  Brattle 
Square  Church,  in  Boston,  and  resumed  his  residence 
here.  He  was  ordained  on  the  9th  Feb.,  1814. 

In  1815  he  was  called  by  the  government  of  Harvard 
College  to  the  chair  of  the  Greek  Professorship,  then 
recently  established  by  Mr.  Samuel  Eliot.  Accepting 
their  invitation,  he  made  his  first  visit  to  Europe  to  pre 
pare  for  his  new  duties,  and,  in  company  with  Mr.  George 
Ticknor,  went  at  once  to  Gottingen,  they  being  among 
the  first  Americans  to  resort  to  a  German  university. 
Returning  to  America  in  18 ft),  after  a  long  course  of 
study  and  travel,  he  entered  upon  his  professorship, 
where  he  gave,  in  the  next  four  years,  an  impulse  to  the 
study  of  Greek  literature  in  America  which  is  not  yet  lost. 

In  1822,  while  a  professor  at  Cambridge,  he  married 
Charlotte  Gray,  daughter  of  the  late  Hon.  Peter  Chardon 
Brooks.  By  this  marriage  he  had  three  sons  and  four 
daughters.  Four  of  these  children  are  not  now  living. 
One  of  the  daughters  died  soon  after  her  birth.  Grace 
Webster  Everett,  named  for  the  wife  of  Hon.  Daniel 
Webster,  died  in  her  ninth  year.  Anne  Gorham  Everett, 
who  grew  to  womanhood,  and  shewed  at  an  early  age 
many  of  the  traits  of  character  and  genius  which  distin 
guished  her  father,  died  in  London,  Oct.  18,  1854.  Dr. 


MEMOIR   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  13 

Edward  Brooks  Everett,  who  graduated  at  Cambridge  in 
1850,  died  November  5,  1861,  leaving  two  children, 
Edward  and  Louisa  Adams,  by  his  wife,  Helen  Cordis, 
daughter  of  Benjamin  Adams,  Esq.  of  this  city. 

The  children  who  survive  Mr.  Everett  are  Charlotte 
Brooks  Wise,  wife  of  Captain  Henry  Augustus  Wise, 
of  the  United  States  Navy  ;  Henry  Sidney  Everett,  who 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1855,  now  Major  in  the 
Volunteer  Army  of  the  United  States,  —  and  William 
Everett,  who  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1859,  and 
took  the  degree  of  B.  A.  at  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
England,  in  1862. 

Mr.  Everett  was  elected  to  Congress,  at  the  election  in 
1824,  from  the  Middlesex  district,  and,  leaving  his  aca 
demic  pursuits,  entered  upon  a  new  and  more  public 
career  as  a  statesman.  He  took  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  in  1825,  as  a  supporter  of  Mr.  Adams, 
and  served  there  for  ten  years.  He  was  at  once  ap 
pointed  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs.  To  the* 
foreign  relations  of  the  country,  therefore,  he  gave  espe 
cial  attention,  —  but  his  interest  was  not  limited  to  them. 
These  years  were  marked  by  discussions  on  the  most 
important  interests  in  our  legislation,  and  in  many  of 
these  discussions  he  took  a  leading  place.  He  served 
in  Congress  through  Mr.  Adams's  administration,  and 
part  of  that  of  General  Jackson's. 

In  1835  Mr.  Everett  was  elected  Governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  held  that  office  for  the  four  years  follow 
ing.  His  official  term  was  a  period  of  unusual  interest 
in  the  historv  of  the  State.  The  Board  of  Education 


14  MEMOIR  OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

was  then  organized,  the  Normal  Schools  founded,  the 
State  subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  Western  Railroad 
was  made ;  and  the  division  of  the  surplus  revenue  of  the 
United  States  presented  a  unique  question  of  State  polic/. 
Losing  his  reelection  by  a  single  vote  in  1839,  Mr. 
Everett,  thus  released  from  public  duty,  sailed  for  Eu 
rope  the  second  time,  in  June  1840,  with  his  family,  and 
passed  a  winter  in  Italy.  General  Harrison's  election, 
however,  brought  his  political  friends  into  favor,  and  Mr. 
Everett  was  appointed  Minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James. 
The  questions  relating  to  the  Northeastern  Boundary,  the 
fisheries,  the  Caroline,  the  Creole,  the  case  of  McLeod, 
and  other  matters  of  dispute,  were  then  at  their  most 
critical  stage.  Mr.  Webster's  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
powers  and  qualifications  of  his  friend  gave  the  latter 
full  scope  for  unfettered  action ;  and  never,  -it  is  safe  to 
say,  was  a  difficult  diplomatic  duty  discharged  with  more 
judgment,  delicacy,  and  grace.  Multiplied  marks  of  re 
spect, —among  which  we  may  name  only  the  honorary 
degrees  conferred  upon  him  by  the  Universities  of  Ox 
ford,  Cambridge,  and  Dublin,  —  testified  the  apprecia 
tion  of  the  cultivated  public  opinion  of  England;  and 
many  personal  friendships,  with  men  of  the  highest  po 
sition  in  society  or  in  letters,  remained  until  his  last  mo 
ment  as  the  memorials  of  this  period  of  his  life.  Wre 
may  add  that,  more  than  once  during  the  present  war, 
proposals  to  accept  diplomatic  responsibilities  of  a  con 
fidential  nature  have  marked  the  recollection  of  his  tri 
umphs  in  this  part  of  his  career,  by  members  of  the 
present  administration. 


MEMOIK  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT.  15 

Returning  home  in  1846,  Mr.  Everett  was  recalled  to 
academic  life,  by  his  Alrna  Mater,  which  in  that  year 
elected  him  President,  to  succeed  the  venerable  Josiah 
Quincy.  Holding  this  position  for  three  years,  Mr. 
Everett  resigned  it  in  1849,  and  for  some  years  re 
mained  in  comparative  retirement. 

While  still  at  Cambridge,  he  had  given  an  impulse 
to  a  movement  for  a  Public  Library  in  Boston,  and  he 
no  sooner  'left  the  presidency  of  the  College  than  he 
addressed  himself  to  its  establishment  on  a  generous 
scale.  TIn  a  letter  to  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Boston, 
Hon.  John  P.  Bigelow.  he  suggested  the  plan  which 
has  been  steadily  carried  forward  from  that  moment, 
and  now  exhibits  a  result  of  the  greatest  interest  and 
value.  Different  suggestions  had  been  offered  with  re 
gard  to  such  a  library,  but  they  had  slept  without  action, 
until  Mr.  Everett  proposed  the  scheme  to  the  Mayor. 
Mr.  Bigelow  immediately  made  the  first  contribution  in 
money  towards  this  purpose,  and  Mr.  Everett  sketched 
out  a  plan  for  the  conduct  of  the  institution.  He  had, 
while  in  Cambridge,  made  a  large  gift  of  books  to  the 
city,  as  a  part  of  the  nucleus  of  such  an  institution. 
A  Board  of  Trustees  was  appointed,  of  which  he  was 
the  chairman,  a  position  which  he  held  until  his  death. 
This  Board,  in  conjunction  with  the  appropriate  com 
mittees  of  the  City  Government,  opened  a  library,  tem 
porarily,  in  1852.  Mr.  Joshua  Bates,  the  intimate  and 
confidential  friend  of  Mr.  Everett,  in  the  autumn  of 
the  same  year,  made  the  first  of  a  series  of  magnificent 
pecuniary  gifts  to  it.  This  institution  differs  from  every 


16  MEMOIR  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

other  large  library  in  the  country,  in  being  a  circu 
lating  library,  from  which  every  person  resident  in  the 
town  may  take  books,  without  charge,  so  long  as  he 
observes  the  regulations.  Mr.  Everett  lived  long  enough 
to  witness  the  complete  success  of  his  plans  and  an 
swer  to  his  wishes  in  its  operations.  He  justly  con 
sidered  it  as  essential  in  a  system  which  aims  at 
universal  education. 

At  the  death  of  Mr.  Webster,  in  October,  1852, 
Mr.  Everett  was  called  by  President  Fillmore  to  the 
Department  of  State. 

During  the  few  months  that  he  was  Secretary  of 
State,  he  had  occasion,  in  the  matter  of  the  proposed 
tripartite  convention  respecting  Cuba,  to  leave  upon 
record  a  memorable  token  of  the  reach  and  vigor  of 
his  policy  in  foreign  aifairs.  The  change  of  administra 
tion,  however,  withdrew  him  from  office,  and  in  1853  he 
took  his  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate,  as  successor 
of  Hon.  John  Davis.  His  health,  however,  which  had 
for  some  years  been  impaired,  had  now  almost  given 
way,  under  the  pressure  of  his  labors  in  the  Cabinet. 
His  sufferings  during  that  winter  were  intense.  He 
spoke  against  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise, —  a  measure  which  he  has  termed  the  Pandora's 
box  from  which  our  ills  have  flowed,  —  but  was  com 
pelled  in  May,  1854,  to  resign  his  seat;  and  this  event 
terminated  his  career  in  public  office  in  the  service  of 
the  Nation,  with  a  single  memorable  exception. 

The  great  work  which  he  performed  in  the  next 
four  years,  when,  with  infirm  bodily  powers,  he  labored 


MEMOIR   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  17 

incessantly  for  the  Mount  Vernon  Fund,  is  fresh  in  the 
minds  of  all.  The  sum  collected  by  his  efforts  for  this 
noble  object  was  little  less  than  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  and  his  motives  for  undertaking  such  a  task, 
recently  alluded  to  in  one  of  his  own  public  speeches, 
will  command  admiration  as  long  as  his  name  shall  be 
remembered :  — 

"  After  the  sectional  warfare  of  opinion  and  feeling 
reached  a  dangerous  height,  anxious  if*  possible  to  bring 
a  counteractive  and  conciliating  influence  into  play;  feel 
ing  that  there  was  yet  one  golden  chord  of  sympathy 
which  ran  throughout  the  land ;  in  the  hope  of  con 
tributing  something,  however  small,  to  preserve  what 
remained,  and  restore  what  was  lost  of  kind  feeling 
between  the  two  sections  of  the  country,  —  I  devoted  the 
greater  part  of  my  time  for  three  years  to  the  attempt 
to  give  new  strength  in  the  hearts  of  my  countrymen 
to  the  last  patriotic  feeling  in  which  they  seemed  to 
beat  in  entire  unison,  —  veneration  and  love  for  the 
name  of  Washington,  and  reverence  for  the  place  of 
his  rest.  With  this  object  in  view,  I  travelled  thousands 
of  miles,  by  night  and  by  day,  in  midwinter  and  mid 
summer,  speaking  three,  four,  and  five  times  a  week,  in 
feeble  health,  and  under  a  heavy  bnrden  of  domestic 
care  and  sorrow,  and  inculcating  the  priceless  value  of 
the  Union  in  precisely  the  same  terms  from  Maine  to 
Georgia  and  from  New  York  to  St.  Louis." 

The  single  exception  alluded  to,  in  which  Mr.  Everett 
once  more  discharged  a  high  public  function  in  the 
National  service,  was  his  fulfilment  of  the  imposing 


18  MEMOIR  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

charge  given  him  by  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  when 
they  chose  him  their  first  Presidential  Elector,  in  No 
vember,  1864.  With  this  exception,  his  constant  service 
as  a  Trustee  of  the  Public  Library  of  the  city  has  been 
his  only  official  duty.  But  in  every  walk  of  life  he 
used  his  closing  years  in  the  service  of  his  fellow-men. 
He  had  recently  promised  to  deliver  before  the  Dane  Law 
School  a  course  of  lectures  on  International  Law,  and 
he  was  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  these  when  he 
died. 

The  last  occasion  on  which  his  voice  was  heard  by 
his  fellow-citizens  in  public,  was  at  the  meeting  in 
Faneuil  Hall  on  Monday,  January  12,  for  the  relief  of 
the  people  of  Savannah.  To  those  who  heard  him  on 
that  occasion  he  seemed  to  exhibit  more  than  his  usual 
animation,  and  his  face  was  free  from  the  expression 
of  subdued  suffering  which  has  too  often  marked  it. 
Upon  his  return  home,  however,  after  a  day  of  fatiguing 
engagements,  he  was  obliged  to  summon  his  physician, 
and  did  not  again  leave  his  house,  —  suffering  from  a 
serious  oppression  of  the  lungs.  He  slept  well  through 
Saturday  night,  until  shortly  after  four,  when  a  sudden 
attack  of  an  apoplectic  nature  ensued,  which,  in  a  few 
minutes,  proved  fatal.  He  died  on  the  15th  of  January, 
1865,  in  the  seventy-first  year  of  his  age. 


OEDEE, 


OF  THE 


PRESIDENT    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 


DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  WASHINGTON,  January  15,  1865. 
The  President  directs  the  undersigned  to  perform  the 
painful  duty  of  announcing  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States  that  Edward  Everett,  distinguished  not  more  by 
learning  and  eloquence  than  by  unsurpassed  and  disinter 
ested  labors  of  patriotism  at  a  period  of  political  disorder, 
departed  this  life  at  four  o'clock  this  morning.  The  sev 
eral  Executive  departments  of  the  Government  will  cause 
appropriate  honors  to  be  rendered  to  the  memory  of  the 
deceased,  at  home  and  abroad,  wherever  the  national 
name  and  authority  are  acknowledged. 

WM.  H.  SEWAKD. 


PROCEEDINGS  IN  THE  CITY  COUNCIL. 


THE  BOARD  OF  ALDERMEN. 


A  SPECIAL  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  was  held  on 
Monday,  January  16,  in  response  to  a  call  by  his  Honor  the 
Mayor,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  appropriate  notice  of  the 
death  of  Mr.  Everett. 

The  Mayor,  on  taking  the  chair,  submitted  the  following 
communication  :  — 

To  THE  HONORABLE  THE  CITY  COUNCIL  :  — 

GENTLEMEN  :  Yesterday,  Sabbath  morning,  January  15, 
the  Honorable  Edward  Everett  was  suddenly  summoned 
by  the  Great  Disposer  of  Events  to  finish  his  course 
on  earth,  and  to  enter  upon  the  happiness  of  an  im 
mortal  existence.  The  sober  cares  of  God's  holy  day 
were  sanctified  by  the  hallowing  influence  of  this  sad 
event,  and  our  community,  which  had  been  so  long 
blessed  by  his  presence,  felt  that  they  had  sustained 
a  loss  which  never  can  be  filled  by  this  generation. 

I  have  deemed  it  my  duty  to  order  the  bells  of 
the  city  churches  to  be  tolled,  to  announce  to  our 
inhabitants  the  death  of  their  most  distinguished  cit 
izen,  and  I  have  called  you  together  at  this  unusual 
hour  that  you  may  take  such  measures  as  your  own 


24  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

hearts   and  the  proprieties  of  this  solemn  occasion  may 
suggest. 

Mr.  Everett,  through  his  long  and  honorable  career, 
has  been  strongly  identified  with  the  reputation  of 
Boston ;  and  although  his  great  talents  and  splendid 
accomplishments  have  often  been  at  the  service  of  the 
nation  and  the  commonwealth,  yet  his  dearest  interests 
have  been  concentrated  upon  the  community  in  which 
his  home  was  chosen,  and  which  depended  upoipi  him 
for  advice  and  assistance  in  every  great  emergency  and 
in  all  good  works. 

Boston  never  had  a  citizen  who  responded  with  more 
alacrity  to  her  demands.  He  was  ever  ready  to  serve 
her  in  official  relations,  or  on  those  more  informal 
occasions,  which  were  graced  by  his  eloquence  and 
power.  His  pen  and  tongue,  whenever  wanted,  were 
devoted  to  her  service  and  honor,  and  -his  highest 
happiness,  I  believe,  was  in  ministering  to  the  welfare 
of  her  people. 

Commencing  his  public  education  in  Boston,  when 
nine  years  of  age,  as  a  pupil  in  the  Eliot  School,  at 
the  North  End,  where,  in  1804,  he  received  his  first 
Franklin  medal,  he  devoted  a  portion  of  the  latter 
years  of  his  great  life  to  the  care  of  the  Public  Li 
brary,  acting,  from  its  organization  until  his  death,  as 
the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

Faneuil  Hall,  so  often  the  scene  where  the  inspi 
ration  of  his  powerful  and  impassioned  eloquence  stirred 
the  hearts  of  our  people,  witnessed  his  last  intellect 
ual  effort ;  and  his  closing  speech,  before  a  popular 


IN   THE   BOARD   OF   ALDERMEN.  25 

assembly,  was,  by  a  wise  Providence,  ordained  to  be  a 
pathetic  and  patriotic  appeal  in. behalf  of  the  suffering 
inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Savannah.  It  was  a  grand 
and  appropriate  termination  to  a  life  of  unselfish  patri 
otism  and  distinguished  public  service. 

His  merits  as  a  statesman,  a  scholar,  and  a  philanthro 
pist  were  acknowledged  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
We,  who  were  drawn  nearer  to  him  in  local  matters, 
knew^iow  to  appreciate  him  as  a  citizen,  as  a  man  true 
in  all  the  relations  of  social  and  domestic  life,  and  one 

x- 

whose  commanding  influence  was  always  brought  to 
bear  on  the  side  of  religion  and  morals,  who  was  an 
example  to  youth,  and  a  prompter  of  noble  deeds  to 
those  in  riper  years. 

Mr.  Everett's  memory  will  ever  be  cherished  with 
pride  by .  Bostonians,  as  one  who  has  added  to  the 
fame  of  the 'city  which  he  loved;  and  I  have  no  doubt 
you  will  agree  with  me  that,  as  he  shared  to  so  large 
an  extent  our  admiration  and  respect  while  living,  so 
he  should  be  suitably  remembered  by  the  Municipal 
Government  now  that  he  is  gone. 

As  the  representatives  of  the  people,  it  is  our  duty 
in  their  behalf  to  testify  in  some  form  our  sense  of 
the  bereavement  we  have  sustained  by  his  death ;  and 
your  action  is  respectfully  invoked  for  such  measures 
as  may  be  proper,  and  which  will  comport  with  the 
dignity  and  character  of  the  occasion.  Pie  has  left  no 
contemporary  as  his  equal,  and  his  name  will  be  hon 
ored  through  many  generations  as  a  good  and  great 
man. 

F.  W.  LINCOLN,  JR.,  Mayor. 


26  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Alderman    Clapp    thereupon    offered    the    following    preamble 
and  resolutions  :  — 

Whereas,  in  the  ripeness  of  his  years,  and  in  the 
full  possession  of  his  great  intellect,  the  Honorable 
Edward  Everett  has  fallen  by  the  hand  of  death, — 
taken  from  a  field  of  usefulness  boundless  as  his  own 
love  for  his  native  country,  —  therefore  it  becomes  us, 
in  behalf  of  the  City  of  Boston,  to  place  tn  our 
records  an  expression  of  the  grief  which  pervades  all 
hearts,  in  a  community  realizing  the  great  loss  which 
the  nation,  the  state,  and  the  city  sustained,  when  the 
immortal  spirit  of  the  statesman,  patriot,  and  Christian 
broke  from  its  earthly  tenement  for  its  journey  through 
eternity. 

Resolved,  That  the  City  Council  of  Boston,  feeling  a 
deep  sense  of  obligation  to  the  deceased  for  his  invalu 
able  services  to  its  local  institutions,  and  recognizing 
in  his  public  life  —  almost  without  a  parallel  for  the 
varied  positions  of  trust  which  he  has  held  at  home 
and  abroad — those  elements  of  true  greatness  which  are 
rarely  combined  in  one  man,  do  most  sincerely  unite 
in  acknowledging  that  in  every  walk  of  life  his  no 
bility  of  character  gave  him  a  claim  to  our  admiration, 
while  the  monuments  of  his  literary  ability  and  phi 
lanthropic  effort  will  keep  his  memory  sacred  through 
out  all  time. 

Resolved,  That  the  sympathy  of  the  City  Council  be 
tendered  to  the  bereaved  family,  in  this  the  hour  of 
their  great  affliction.  There  is  consolation  in  the  thought 


IN   THE   BOARD   OF  ALDERMEN.  27 

that  it  pleased  God,  in  his  goodness,  to  prolong  the 
life  of  his  servant,  that  he  might  prove,  in  the  darkest 
hour  of  onr  history,  a  bright  and  shining  light. 

Resolved,  That  His  Honor  the  Mayor  be  requested  to 
call  a  meeting  of  the  citizens,  at  Faneuil  Hall,  on 
Wednesday,  at  noon,  that  a  public  expression  of  the 
great  loss  sustained  by  this  community  may  be  a  tribute 
of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased. 

Resolved,  That  a  joint  special  committee  of  the  two 
branches  of  the  City  Council  be  appointed,  to  express 
to  the  family  the  desire  of  the  city  to  take  such  part 
in  the  funeral  ceremonies  as  may  be  appropriate. 

Resolved,  That  the  committee  be  also  empowered  to 
make  all  arrangements  for  such  other  tokens  of  respect 
to  the  deceased  as  may  be  deemed  due  to  his  exalted 
fame. 

Alderman  Tyler  spoke  briefly  in  support  of  the  resolutions, 
after  which  they  were  unanimously  adopted,  the  members  rising 
in  their  places.  . 

Aldermen  Tyler,  Messinger,  and  Dana  were  appointed  on  the 
committee,  on  the  part  of  the  Board,  to  take  charge  of  the 
funeral  ceremonies. 

Adjourned. 


IN  THE  COMMON  COUNCIL'. 


A  SPECIAL  meeting  of  the  Common  Council  was  also  held  on 
Monday,  at  12  o'clock,  M.  to  take  action  in  concurrence  with 
the  Board  of  Aldermen  in  relation  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett. 
The  President,  William  B.  Fowle,  Jr.  Esquire,  occupied  the 
chair. 

The  communication  of  His  Honor,  the  Mayor,  and  the  reso 
lutions  of  the  Board,  were  received  and  read. 

The  President  then  spoke  as  follows :  — 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  COMMON  COUNCIL  :  — 

It  is  rarely  our  fortune,  in  deploring  the  loss  of  a 
distinguished  and  valued  citizen,  to  be  able  with  our 
grief  tb  combine  so  many  truly  pleasurable  emotions. 
A  retrospective  view  of  the  life  of  Edward  Everett 
brings  with  it  peculiar  satisfaction.  Endowed  by  Prov 
idence  with  an  intellect  rarely  if  ever  surpassed,  that 
intellect  has  been  employed  by  him  in  single,  honest 
effort  for  the  true  good  of  his  country,  and  in  pro 
moting  the  welfare  of  his  fellow-men. 

Especially  have  the  citizens  of  Boston  felt  his  influ 
ence,  and  gloried  in  his  intellect.  To  him,  before  all 
others,  have  we  ever  looked,  in  time  of  trouble,  for 


IN  THE   COMMON   COUNCIL.  29 

counsel  and   advice,    and    at    such    times    he   has   ever 
proved  a  pillar  of  strength  and  wisdom. 

We  mourn  our  loss ;  yet  in  our  grief  we  thank  a 
kind  Providence  that  his  great  intellect  was  spared  to 
the  last,  and  that  to  the  latest  moment  his  usefulness 
was  unimpaired. 

The  resolutions  passed  unanimously,  the  members  rising. 

The  following  members  were  appointed  to  join  the  com 
mittee  of  the  Board:  Clement  Willis,  Granville  Hears,  Jonas 
Fitch,  John  P.  Ordway,  and  Benjamin  F.  Stevens.  On  mo 
tion,  the  President  of  the  Council  was  added  to  this  com 
mittee. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Stebbins  of  Ward  10,  it  was  voted  that 
the  Clerk  be  authorized  to  send  a  copy  of  the  resolutions 
passed,  and  the  addresses  of  His  Honor  the  Mayor  and  of  the 
President  of  the  Common  Council,  to  the  family  of  the  deceased. 

Adjourned. 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 


BY  invitation  of  His  .Honor  the  Mayor,  a  number  of  the 
prominent  citizens  of  Boston  met  at  the  City  Hall  on  Monday 
afternoon,  January  16,  for  the  purpose  of  consulting  upon 
arrangements  for  a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall.  It  was  decided 
to  hold  the  meeting  on  Wednesday,  January  18,  1865,  at  noon. 
The  following  Committees  were  appointed :  — 

On  Organization:  George  B.  Upton,  J.  Huntington  Wolcott, 
Edward  S.  Tobey,  Otis  Norcross,  and  George  C.  Richardson. 
On  Resolutions:  Samuel  H.  Walley,  George  S.  Hillard,  Rev. 
S.  K.  Lothrop,  George  W.  Bond,  and  H.  P.  Kidder. 

The  following  notice  was  published  in  the  newspapers  :  — 

MAYOR'S  OFFICE,  CITY  HALL, 

BOSTON,  January  16,   1865. 
To  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BOSTON  :  — 

In  conformity  with  a  resolve  passed  this  day  by  the 
City  Council,  the  citizens  of  Boston  are  invited  to  as 
semble  in  Faneuil  Hall,  on  Wednesday,  January  18,  at 
12  o'clock,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  such  measures  as 
may  be  deemed  appropriate  to  express  their  sense  of 
the  loss  the  nation  and  this  community  have  sustained 
by  the  recent  decease  of  their  late  eminent  fellow  cit 
izen,  Edward  Everett. 

F.  W.  LINCOLN,  JR. 


34  MEMORIAL    OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

At  the  hour  designated  in  the  above  notice,  the  citizens  of 
Boston  convened  in  Faneuil  Hall,  —  attracted  there,  as  their  ap 
pearance  would  indicate,  through  nov  idle  curiosity,  but  through 
a  desire  to  testify,  by  their  presence,  to  the  sorrow  which 
pervaded  the  community.  The  darkened  hall,  the  symbols  of 
mourning  upon  the  walls,  the  sad  and  subdued  expression  of 
the  assemblage,  combined  to  make  the  scene  remarkably  im 
pressive. 

At  twelve  o'clock,  Mr.  George  B.  Upton  came  forward  upon 
the  platform,  and  read,  as  the  report  of  the  Committee  on 
Organization,  the  following  list  of  officers  for  the  meeting:  — 


PRESIDENT, 

Hrs  HONOR,  F.  W.  LINCOLN,  JR. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS , 

Chief  Justice  G.  T.  Bigelow,  J.  Thomas  Stevenson, 

Charles  G.  Loring,  Charles  G.  Greene, 

George  Ticknor,  Rt.  Rev.  J.  B.  Fitzpatrick, 

John  C.  Gray,  Thomas  Aspinwall, 

Robert  C.  Winthrop,  Silas  Peirce, 

Rev.  G.  W*  Blagden,  George  W.  Lyman, 

James  Savage,  J.  Z.  Goodrich, 

Stephen  Fairbanks,  Dr.  George  Hay  ward, 

Rt.  Rev.  Manton  Eastburn,  Joseph  T.  Bailey, 

Charles  Wells,  Albert  Fearing, 

J.  G.  Palfrey,  Josiah  Quincy, 

David  Sears,  James  W.  Paige, 

Dr.  James  Jackson,  Patrick  Donahoe, 

Francis  C.  Lowell,  James  Read, 

William  B.  Reynolds, 


MEETING  IN   FANEUIL   HALL.  35 

SECRETARIES, 

William  W.  Greenough,  .Patrick  T.  Jackson, 

Edwin  P.  Whipple,     .  J.  Tisdale  Bradlee. 

Mayor  Lincoln  took  the  chair,  and  prayer  was  offered  by 
Rev.  S.  K.  Lothrop,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Brattle  Street  Church. 
The  Mayor  then  addressed  the  meeting  as  follows  :  - 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  — 

The  official  position  which  it  is  my  fortune  to  occupy 
brings  with  it,  through  your  courtesy,  the  distinguished 
honor  of  presiding  over  the  deliberations  of  this  as 
sembly. 

The  sad  event  which  has  called  us  together  has  cast 
a  shadow  over  all  the  land,  but  its  deepest  gloom  is 
naturally  felt  in  this  community;  and  this  venerable 
hall,  clad  in  its  mourning  habiliments,  feebly  represents 
the  grief  which  oppresses  all  our  hearts.  The  opening 
dawn  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  closed  the  earthly 
career  of  our  foremost  man ;  and  we  are  assembled,  be 
fore  his  body  has  received  its  funeral  rites,  and  has 
been  "  committed  to  the  holy  mystery  of  the  ground," 
to  do  honor  to  his  memory,  and  to  express  our  sense 
of  the  bereavement  we  have  sustained  by  his  death. 

We  have  met,  fellow-citizens,  to  dwell  for  a  while  on 
the  merits  of  one  who  has  so  often  led  our  thoughts 
in  contemplation  of  the  distinguished  dead.  It  is  hard 
for  us  to  realize,  especially  within  these  walls,  that 
those  eloquent  lips  are  dumb,  and  that  he,  too,  is  gone, 
never  more  to  stand  on  this  platform,  before  a  waiting 


36  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

multitude  eager  to  hear  those  words  of  wisdom  and 
cheer,  which  dropped  like  manna  when  he  spoke.  It 
has  been  my  great  privilege,  for  a  number  of  years 
past,  to  be  a  personal  witness,  on  public  occasions,  or 
in  more  private  ways,  to  Mr.  Everett's  zeal  and  devo 
tion  to  the  welfare  of  this  community,  and  his  stanch 
and  unswerving  loyalty  to  his  native  land. 

His  presence  was  a  benediction.  The  world  is  better 
that  he  has  lived  in  it;  and  his  memory  will  be  one  of 
those  rich  treasures  which  can  never  be  taken  away 
from  his  countrymen.  Boston,  as  his  home,  was 
ever  dear  to  him.  He  was  interested  in  its  most  trivial 
concerns,  while  his  comprehensive  mind  extended  and 
took  delight  in  those  vast  affairs  which  constitute  our 
strength  and  character  as  a  nation. 

It  does  not  become  me,  in  this  presence,  surrounded 
as  I  am  by  the  talented  and  gifted  of  the  community, 
to  speak  to  you  of  his  genius,  and  of  the  rich  fruits 
of  his  noble  career.  The  consummate  ability  which 
distinguished  his  public  efforts,  and  the  dignity  and 
grace  of  his  private  life,  will  be  discoursed  upon  by 
those  who,  in  fitting  words,  can  do  justice  to  such 
topics.  My  only  duty  is,  with  your  indulgence,  to  con 
duct  in  some  degree  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting, 
and  by  my  official  presence,  in  an  humble  way,  to  be 
the  representative  of  the  City  of  Boston  on  this  occa 
sion. 

Hon.  Samuel  H.  Walley  was  introduced,  and  read,  without 
prefatory  remark,  the  following  series  of  resolutions  :  — 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL   HALL.  37 

It  having  pleased  Almighty  God,  in  the  exercise  of 
his  all-wise  Providence,  to  remove  by  death  our  fellow- 
citizen,  Edward  Everett,  whose  decease  occurred  at  his 
residence  in  this  city,  on  Sunday  morning,  January  15, 
1865,  in  the  seventy-first  year  of  his  age;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  we  bow  with  humble  acquiescence  to 
the  will  of  God,  knowing  that  the  Judge  of  all  the 
earth  will  do  right ;  that  all  men  and  all  events  are  at 
his  disposal ;  and  that  it  becomes  us  to  believe  that 
he  knows  infinitely  better  than  we  do,  or  can,  the 
most  appropriate  season  for  the  departure  of  each  in 
dividual,  however  lowly,  or  however  highly  exalted,  from 
time  to  eternity. 

Resolved,  That  we  are  bound  by  every  sense  of  obli 
gation  of  which  we  are  capable  to  acknowledge  with 
gratitude  the  goodness  of  God,  in  granting  to  our  com 
munity  so  rich  a  gift  as  we  all  feel  was  contained  *in 
the  natural  endowments,  the  rare  opportunities,  the  con 
scientious  nature,  the  extensive  influence,  and  the  pro 
tracted  life  of  our  departed  friend. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett,  not  alone 
his  family,  not  alone  the  city  where  he  lived,  the  com 
monwealth  to  which  he  belonged,  the  bleeding  and  dis 
tracted  nation  of  which  he  was  an  essential  part,  —  not 
alone  all  of  these,  but  the  world  of  letters  and  of 
learning,  the  world  of  eloquence  and  refined  culture, 
the  world  of  science  and  of  profound  scholarship,  the 
cause  of  humanity  at  large  and  of  human  freedom  in 
particular,  the  cause  of  Christian  morality  and  of 
humble,  unostentatious  Christian  life  and  conversation, — 


38  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD    EVERETT. 

mourn  the  loss  of  a  bright,  inflexible,  and  consistent 
exemplar, 

Resolved,  That  in  tracing  the  varied  and  eventful  life 
of  him  whose  decease  we  this  day  mourn,  we  are 
forcibly  reminded  of  its  fitting  commencement  and  close. 
His  earliest  strains  of  eloquence,  ere  he  had  reached 
the  age  of  manhood,  having  sounded  forth  from  the 
pulpit  to  crowded  audiences,  who  hung  upon  his  lips 
with  thrilling  interest;  while  his  almost  dying  words 
were  an  eloquent  plea  to  his  fellow-citizens  to  give 
heed  to  the  teachings  of  Holy  Writ  —  "If  thine  enemy 
hunger,  feed  him ;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink." 

Resolved^  That  in  reviewing  the  claims  to  our  respect 
and  admiration  furnished  by  the  life  of  our  friend, 
kindly  continued  beyond  threescore  and  ten,  we  are 
forcibly  reminded  of  the  fact  that,  unlike  most  men, 
his  severest  trial  was  to  satisfy  himself,  as  he  was 
always  his  own  great  rival,  —  never  failing  to  meet  the 
expectations  of  his  friends,  but  never  satisfying  his  own 
demands  upon  himself.  And  with  all  his  native  mod 
esty  and  diffidence,  at  times  mistaken,  by  those  who 
did  not  know  the  workings  of  his  heart  and  his  true 
nature,  for  coldness  of  manner,  it  was  apparent  to  all 
careful  observers  that  each  step  in  his  progress  through 
life  seemed  to  be  onward  and  upward,  —  not  always 
pleasing  all  men,  for  then  he  would  have  been  of 
little  worth,  but  always  acting  from  a  high  sense  of 
conscientious  obligation  to  the  Giver  of  his  splendid 
talents. 

Resolved,  That   while    we    are    at    a    loss    which    most 


MEETING    IN   FANEUIL   HALL,  39 

to  admire  of  all  the  rare  endowments  of  the  departed, 
his  course  may  well  be  likened  to  the  sun  in  the 
heavens,  —  rising  full-orbed  in  a  cloudless  sky,  shining 
brightly  as  it  approached  meridian,  and  continuing  with 
undiminished  splendor  until  its  setting  hour;  when, 
still  full-orbed  and  large,  undimmed  and  in  unclouded 
light,  it  quietly  sank  below  the  horizon.  Thus  did  he 
of  whom  we  speak ;  constantly  adding  to  his  knowledge, 
that  he  might  instruct  the  more  from  the  rich  store 
house  of  his  cultivated  mind ;  and  went  forward  in 
life  instructing  the  people  in  the  church,  in  the  col 
lege,  in  the  senate,  at  the  foreign  court,  and  in  the 
cabinet  at  home,  till  wearied  of  the  vexations  of  politi 
cal  strife,  and  with  impaired  health  he  sought  rest  in 
retirement.  But  with  renewed  health  he  rose  again  to 
view,  more  bright  than  ever,  and,  with  a  zeal  and  a 
power  unsurpassed,  labored  to  save  his  country  from 
civil  war,  by  commending  to  North  and  South  the  ex 
ample  and  counsels  of  Washington;  and  failing  in  this 
eifort,  —  finding  his  flag  assailed  and  his  country  im 
perilled, — with  a  magnanimity  and  self-forgetfulness,  and 
a  power  of  eloquence  worthy  of  all  praise  and  imita 
tion,  he  devoted  all  his  energies  to  the  single  work 
of  saving  his  country,  and  reuniting  it  upon  a  secure 
and  righteous  basis,  with  no  stripe  erased,  no  star 
blotted  from  its  flag,  no  stain  upon  its  fair  escutcheon. 
It  was  in  this,  the  last  epoch  of  his  eventful  life,  that 
he  shone  out  full-orbed,  and  secured  an  abiding  place 
for  the  record  of  his  fame  on  the  imperishable  scroll 
of  a  nation's  gratitude. 


40  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Resolved,  That  a  life  so  full  of  well-directed,  indus 
trious  effort,  coupled  with  power?  of  a  high  order, — 
a  life  marked  strongly  throughout,  but  brilliantly  at  its 
close,  by  deeds  of  unselfish  patriotism,  deserves  to  be 
held  up  no  less  for  the  imitation  of  posterity  than  for 
the  commendation  of  contemporaries ;  and  in  order  to 
associate  in  the  minds  of  future  beholders  the  linea 
ments  of  his  person  with  the  history  of  his  greatness, 
it  is  expedient  that  a  statue  should  be  erected  in  honor 
of  Edward  Everett. 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  fifty  citizens  be  ap 
pointed  by  the  Chair,  in  accordance  with  the  previous 
resolve. 

Resolved^  That  while  we  do  not  presume  to  trespass 
on  the  sacred  retirement  of  domestic  grief,  called 
forth  by  the  loss  of  one  who  was  so  admirable  in  all 
the  domestic  relations, — we  may  be  permitted  to  tender 
our  heartfelt  sympathy  to  the  family  of  the  deceased, 
in  this  hour  of  sudden  and  heavy  sorrow;  and  at  the 
same  time  to  point  them  to  the  abundant  consolations 
afforded  by  such  a  close  to  such  a  life. 

Resolved^  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  for 
warded  by  the  officers  of  this  meeting  to  the  family  of 
Edward  Everett. 

The  President  then  introduced  Hon.  Charles  G.  Loring, 
whose  remarks  were  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW- CITIZENS  :  — 

In  obedience  to  the  request  of  the  authorities  under 
whose  auspices  this  meeting  is  assembled,  and  the 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  41 

impulses  of  friendship  and  admiration  for  the  illustrious 
man  whose  death  it  is  designed  to  commemorate,  I  am 
here  to  speak  to  you  of  the  decease  of  Edward  Everett. 
But  what  shall  I  say?  The  theme  is  so  full  and  ex- 
haustless  that  I  know  not  where  to  begin,  and  if  I 
could  rightly  begin,  I  should  not  know  where  to  end. 
The  simple  announcement  that  Edward  Everett  is  dead 
so  fills  the  minds  of  such  an  audience  of  fellow-towns 
men  and  friends  with  thickly  crowding  recollections 
and  emotions,  that  the  mere  utterance  of  the  mournful 
truth  seems  to  be  all  that  is  needed  to  awaken  the 
most  affecting  remembrances  of  his  virtues,  and  of  his 
services  for  ourselves  and  our  country,  and  to  inspire 
each  heart  with  its  own  most  fitting  eulogium. 

A  few  brief  weeks  only  have  passed  since  he  stood 
upon  this  platform  to  vindicate,  what  seemed  to  him 
and  to  most  of  us,  the  great  cause  of  our  beloved 
country.  The  sounds  of  your  ^plaudits  upon  his  appear 
ance,  and  of  your  enthusiastic  approbation  of  his  ad 
dress,  seem  to  be  still  ringing  in  my  ears,  and  to  be 
reverberating  from  these  walls ;  a  few  brief  days  only 
have  gone  since  he  again  stood  here,  in  eloquent  and 
effective  appeals  to  your  benevolence,  your  magnanimity, 
and  your  patriotism,  in  behalf  of  the  famishing  poor  of 
Savannah.  It  seems  almost  impossible  to  bring  home 
to  our  hearts  the  reality  that  we  are.  never  again  to 
listen  to  his  words  of  counsel,  to  his  bursts  of  patriotic 
enthusiasm,  or  his  touching  appeals  in  behalf  of  down 
trodden  humanity;  and  that  these  same  walls  are  now 
so  soon  echoing  to  lamentations  over  his  bier. 

6 


42  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Upon  the  former  of  those  occasions  it  was  remarked 
that  when  the  time  should  come,  which  it  was  trusted 
might  be  far  distant,  for  contemplating  the  monument 
which  his  life  and  services  would  constitute  in  the 
history  of  his  country,  when  the  eye  shall  have  lin 
gered  in  admiration  upon  the  entablatures  commemora 
tive  of  his  character,  his  scholarship,  his  eloquence, 
and  his  statesmanship,  it  would  at  last  rest  with  still 
fonder  delight  upon  that  which  shall  tell  of  his  patri 
otism,  when,  Samson-like,  bursting  the  withes  of  old 
political  associations,  he  threw  himself,  heart  and  hand, 
into  the  cause  of  his  country,  to  save  her,  if  possible, 
from  the  perils  with  which  she  was  surrounded.  How 
soon,  ala£ !  has  this  prophecy  become  history. 

Proud,  as  we  justly  may  be,  of  his  varied  learning, 
his  matchless  oratory,  his  world-wide  reputation  as  a 
scholar  and  a  statesman;  and  pleasant  as  it  might  be 
to  dwell  upon  all  that  h*e  has  accomplished  for  letters 
and  ar,t  and  science,  and  the  fame  of  his  native  land ; 
how  instinctively,  nay,  how  almost  exclusively,  we  now 
turn  to  contemplate  his  noble  patriotism ;  the  devotion 
of  his  great  powers  and  generous  heart  to  the  service 
of  his  country.  How  much  dearer  to  us  is  Edward 
Everett  the  patriot,  than  he  ever  could  have  been  if 
only  Edward  Everett  the  scholar,  the  statesman,  and  the 
orator,  although  standing  without  a  rival.  His  patriotism, 
however,  though  fervent,  was  not  marred  by  any  unjust 
disparagement  of  those  who,  seeking  their  country's 
welfare,  differed  from  him  in  their  judgment  of  the 
best  means  of  securing  it.  While  no  one  could  ques- 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  43 

tion    the    sincerity    and   purity  of  his   motives,  he    was 
wholly  above  any  ungenerous  distrust  of  theirs. 

When  the  family  of  a  great  and  good  man  stand 
around  his  grave,  it  is  not  the  termination  of  his  career 
of  intellectual  achievement,  or  of  future  opportunity  for 
its  triumphs,  that  causes  the  tear  to  drop  upon  the 
coffin  lid,  but  the  thought  that  the  wise  counsellor,  the 
noble  exemplar,  the  strong  protector,  and  the  loving 
friend  is  gone,  and  that  the  places  which  knew  him 
shall  know  him  no  more  forever.  So  now,  fellow- 
citizens,  we,  —  united  as  we  feel  ourselves  to  be  in  pa 
triotic  friendship,  man  to  man,  as  never  before,  in  this 
mighty  struggle  for  national  life,  —  gather  around  the 
bier  of  Edward  Everett  in  sympathizing  grief,  that  we 
can  no  longer  be  guided  by  his  counsels,  encouraged 
by  his  patriotism,  and  sustained  by  his  intellectual 
strength  and  influence.  Nor  do  we  bend  over  it  alone. 
The  wretched  sufferers  in  Tennessee,  whom  his  efforts 
have  so  effectually  aided  to  rescue  from  starvation,  and 
other  horrors  consequent  upon  a  fiendish  persecution, — 
the  destitute  mingled  friends  and  foes  of  Savannah, 
for  whom  he  so  earnestly  and  successfully  pleaded  here 
a  few  days  ago,  —  the  last  effort  of  those  eloquent  lips 
now  cold  in  death,  —  the  exultant  freedman,  the  cower 
ing  refugee,  the  noble  soldiers  in  the  hospitals,  —  all  of 
whose  causes  he  has  upheld  and  promoted  by  his  elo 
quence  and  his  toils,  with  the  patriots  of  every  name 
throughout  the  land,  all  are  heartfelt  mourners  with  us 
to-day. 

This  is  not  the  time  or  -the  occasion  for  an  enumera- 


44  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

tion  or  an  analysis  of  the  intellectual  powers  and  traits 
of  character  of  our  friend ;  otherwise  it  were    easy  and 
delightful  to  trace  his  career,  for  their  illustration,  from 
the  remarkably  precocious    development   of  his  literary 
powers  in  boyhood  to  their   maturity  in   manhood   and 
old  age ;  to  follow  him  from   the   college,  in  which  he 
was  graduated  with  the    highest   honors,  to   the    tutor's 
chair,  to  the  pulpit,  the  professorship,  the  editorship  of 
the  North  American  Review,  to  the  halls  of  Congress,  in 
.    both  branches,  to  the   gubernatorial   chair  of  this  Com 
monwealth,  to  the  Cabinet  as  Minister  of  State,  to  the 
chief  of  our  foreign  diplomatic  missions,  to   the   Presi 
dency  of   Harvard  College,  and    other    stations    of  duty 
and  honor,  in  all  of  which  he  was  distinguished  by  un 
surpassed  ability  and  unswerving  fidelity ;   to  his  glori 
ous    enterprise   for   uniting    the    hearts    of    the   people 
throughout  the  land  in  the  knowledge  of  the  character 
and   principles    of  the   Father   of   his    Country,  and   in 
the   establishment  of   Mount  Vernon  as  the   monument 
of  a    nation's  reverence  and  gratitude;    and,  finally,  to 
that  widely  diffused    and   vast  personal  influence  which 
he  obtained  throughout  our  country,  and  which  he  has 
so    signally  devoted  to  her   service  in    this  her  hour  of 
need.     But  we    are    not   here   to  celebrate  his    achieve 
ments,  or  glory  in  his  fame.     The  time  is  not  distant, 
we  may  trust,  when  the  erection  of  a  suitable  statue  to 
his   memory    shall    give    opportunity  for    such   a  record. 
We  are  here  now,  in  justice  to  ourselves,  that  we  may 
unite  in  testifying   to    our  sense  of   his  worth,   and    our 
just  appreciation  of  the  loss  which  this  community  es- 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  -     45 

pecially,  and   our  whole    country,  has    sustained  in    his 
death.     I  heartily  second  the  resolutions. 

Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop  was  the  next  speaker.  He  ad 
dressed  the  meeting  in  the  following  words  :  - 

I  hardly  know,  fellow-citizens  and  friends,  I  hardly 
know  either  how  to  speak  or  how  to  be  silent  here 
to-day.  I  dare  not  trust  myself  to  any  off-hand,  impul 
sive  utterance  on  such  a  theme.  And  yet  I  cannot  but 
feel  how  poor  and  how  inadequate  to  the  occasion  is 
the  best  preparation  which  I  am  capable  of  making.  I 
am  sincerely  and  deeply  sensible  how  unfitted  I  am, 
by  emotions  which  I  should  in  vain  attempt  to  restrain, 
for  meeting  the  expectations  and  the  demands  of  such 
an  hour,  or  for  doing  justice  to  an  event  which  has 
hardly  left  a  heart  unmoved,  or  an  eye  unmoistened,  in 
our  whole  community.  Most  gladly  would  I  still  be 
permitted  to  remain  a  listener  only,  and  to  indulge  a 
silent  but  heartfelt  sorrow  for  the  loss  of  so  illustrious 
a  fellow-citizen  and  so  dear  a  friend. 

I  have  so  often  been  privileged  to  follow  him  on 
these  public  occasions  of  every  sort,  that  I  feel  almost 
at  a  loss  how  to  proceed  without  the  encouragement  of 
his  friendly  countenance  and  the  inspiration  of  his 
matchless  tones.  I  seem  to  myself  to  be  still  waiting 
for  his  ever- welcome,  ever-brilliant  lead.  I  find  it  all 
but  impossible  to  realize  the  fact,  that  we  are  assembled 
here  in  Faneuil  Hall,  at  a  meeting  at  which  whatever 
is  most  eloquent,  whatever  is  most  impressive,  whatever 
is  most  felicitous  and  most  finished,  ought  justly  to  be 


46  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

heard,  and  that  Edward  Everett  is  not  here  with  us  to  say 
the  first,  the  best,  the  all-sufficient  word.  I  feel  myself 
impelled  to  exclaim  —  and  you  will  all  unite  with  me  in 
the  exclamation  — 

"  Oh,  for  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still'd, 
And  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand." 

Certainly,  my  friends,  I  can  find  no  other  words  to  begin 
with,  than  those  which  he  himself  employed,  when  rising 
to  speak  in  this  hall  on  the  death  of  that  great  statesman, 
whose  birthday,  by  a  strange  but  touching  coincidence,  we 
are  so  sadly  commemorating  to-day  by  this  public  tribute 
to  his  life-long  friend  and  chosen  biographer :  "  There  is 
but  one  voice,'7  said  Mr.  Everett  of  Daniel  Webster,  and 
certainly  I  may  repeat  it  of  himself  to-day,  "  There  is  but 
one  voice  that  ever  fell  upon  my  ear  which  could  do  jus 
tice  to  such  an  occasion.  That  voice,  alas,  we  shall  hear 
no  more  forever." 

Yes,  fellow-citizens,  as  a  celebrated  Roman  historian 
said  of  the  consummate  orator  of  his  own  land  and  age, 
that  to  praise  him  worthily  required  the  eloquence  of  Cic 
ero  himself,  so  we  cannot  fail  to  feel  that  full  justice  to 
the  career  and  character  of  our  American  Cicero  could 
only  be  rendered  by  the  best  effort  of  his  own  unequalled 
powers.  It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  of  him,  that 
he  has  left  behind  him  no  one  sufficient  to  pronounce  his 
eulogy  as  it  should  be  pronounced;  no  one,  certainly,  who 
can  do  for  him  all  that  he  has  done  for  so  many  others 
who  have  gone  before  him. 

But,  indeed,  my  friends,  the   event  which  has  called  us 


MEETING  IN   FANEUIL  HALL.  47 

together  has  occurred  too  suddenly,  too  unexpectedly,  for 
any  of  us  to  be  quite  prepared  either  for  attempting  or 
for  hearing  any  formal  account  of  our  departed  friend's 
career,  or  any  cold  analysis  of  his  public  or  private  charac 
ter.  There  must  be  time  for  us  to  recover  from  the  first 
shock  of  so  overwhelming  a  loss  before  his  eulogy  can  be 
fitly  undertaken  or  calmly  listened  to.  His  honored  re 
mains  are  still  awaiting  those  funeral  rites  in  which  our 
whole  community  will  so  eagerly  and  so  feelingly  unite 
to-morrow.  The  very  air  wre  are  breathing  at  this  moment 
is  still  vocal  and  vibrating  with  his  last  public  appeal.  It 
seems  but  an  instant  since  he  was  with  us  on  this  platform, 
pleading  the  cause  of  humanity  and  Christian  benevolence 
in  as  noble  strains  as  ever  fell  from  human  lips.  And  no 
one,  I  think,  who  had  the  privilege  of  hearing  that  appeal, 
can  fail  to  remember  a  passage,  which  did  not  find  its  way 
into  any  of  the  printed  reports,  but  which  made  a  deep 
impression  on  my  own  heart,  as  I  stood  on  yonder  floor  a 
delighted  listener  to  one  whom  I  could  never  hear  too 
often.  It  was  the  passage  in  which,  in  terms  quite 
unusual  for  him,  and  which  seemed  as  if  the  shadow  of 
coming  events  were  passing  over  his  mind,  he  spoke  of 
himself  as  "an  old  man  who  had  nothing  but  his  lips  left 
for  contributing  to  the  public  good."  Nothing  but  his 
lips  left !  Ah,  my  friends,  what  lips  those  were  !  If  ever 
since  the  days  of  the  infant  Plato,  of  whom  the  story  is 
told,  if  ever  since  that  age  of  cunning  fable  and  of  deep 
philosophy  with  which  he  was  so  familiar,  the  Attic  bees 
have  lighted  upon  any  human  lips,  and  left  their  persua 
sive  honey  there  without  a  particle  of  their  sting,  it  must 


48  MEMORIAL  OF   EDWARD    EVERETT. 

have  been  on  those  of  our  lamented  friend.  What  lips 
they  were  !  And  what  hare  they  not  accomplished  since 
they  were  first  opened  in  mature,  articulate  speech  !  What 
worthy  topic  have  they  not  illustrated !  What  good  and 
noble  cause  have  they  not  advocated  and  adorned !  On 
what  occasion  of  honor  to  the  living  or  to  the  dead.  —  at 
what  commemoration  of  the  glorious  past  —  in  what  exi 
gency  of  the  momentous  present  —  have  those  lips  ever 
been  mute?  From  what  call  of  duty  or  of  friendship,  of 
charity  or  of  patriotism,  have  they  ever  been  withheld  ? 

Turn  to  those  three  noble  volumes  of  his  works,  and  fol 
low  him  in  that  splendid  series  of  Orations  which  they 
contain  —  from  the  earliest  at  Cambridge,  in 'which  he 
pronounced  that  thrilling  welcome  to  Lafayette  a  little 
more  than  forty  years  ago,  down  to  that  on  the  4th  of 
July.  1858,  which  he  "concluded  by  saying,  that  in  the 
course  of  nature  he  should  go  to  his  grave  before  long, 
and  he  wished  no  other  epitaph  to  be  placed  upon  it  than 
this  :  4i  Through  evil  report  and  through  good  report  he 
loved  his  whole  country :  "  —  Follow  him.  I  say.  in  his 
whole  career  as  unfolded  in  those  noble  volumes  —  the 
best  manual  of  American  Eloquence  —  and  then  take  up 
the  record  of  those  other  Orations  and  Addresses  which 
are  still  to  be  included  in  his  collected  works,  the  record 
of  the  last  few  years,  as  it  is  impressed  upon  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  every  patriot  in  our  land  — with  all  its  grand 
appeals  for  Mount  Vernon  and  the  memory  of  Washington. 
for  the  sufferers  of  East  Tennesee.  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Union,  for  the  defence  of  the  country  against  rebellion 
and  treason,  for  the  support  of  the  National  Administration 


MEETING  IN  FAXEUIL  HALL.  49 

agreeably  to  his  own  honest  convictions  of  duty :  Follow 
him,  I  say  again,  along  the  radiant  pathway  of  that  whole 
career,  illuminated  as  it  is  from  his  earliest  manhood  to 
the  last  week  of  his  life  by  the  sparkling  productions 
of  his  own  genius,  and  then  tell  me,  you  who  can, 
what  cause  of  education  or  literature,  what  cause  of 
art  or  industry,  what  cause  of  science  or  history,  what 
cause  of  religion  or  charity,  what  cause  of  philanthropy 
or  patriotism,  has  not  been  a  debtor  —  a  debtor  beyond 
the  power  of  payment  —  and,  now  alas  !  beyond  the  power 
of  acknowledgment,  —  to  his  voice  or  to  his  pen  !  Who 
has  ever  more  fairly  won  the  title  of  "  the  golden- 
mouthed,"  since  the  sainted  Chrysostom  of  old,  than  he 
who,  by  the  music  of  his  voice  and  the  magic  of  his 
tongue,  has  so  often  coined  his  thoughts  into  eagles  and 
turned  his  words  into  ingots,  at  one  moment  for  the 
redemption  of  the  consecrated  home  and  grave  of  the 
Father  of  his  Country,  and  at  another  for  the  relief  of  an 
oppressed  and  suffering  people ! 

And  who,  my  friends,  as  he  reviews  this  marvellous 
career,  can  fail  to  remember  how  singularly  applicable 
to  him,  in  view  of  his  earliest  as  well  as  of  his  later 
callings,  are  those  words  in  which  the  immortal  drama 
tist  has  described  the  curious  felicity  and  facility  of  speech, 
and  the  extraordinary  versatility  of  powers,  of  one  of  the 
great  princes  and  sovereigns  of  England :  — 

"  Hear  him  but  reason  in  divinity, 
And,  al!-adnriring,  with  an  inward  wish 
You^vould  desire  the  king  were  made  a  prelate  : 

Hear  him  debate  of  commonwealth  affairs, 

7 


50  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

You  'd  say,  it  hath  been  all-in-all  his  study  : 
List  his  discourse  of  war,  and  you  shall  hear 
A  fearful  battle  rendered  you  in  music : 
Turn  him  to  any  cause  of  policy, 
The  Gordian  knot  of  it  he  will  unloose, 
Familiar  as  his  garter  ;  that  when  he  speaks, 
The  air,  a  chartered  libertine,  is  still, 
And  the  mute  wonder  lurketh  in  men's  ears, 
To  steal  his  sweet  and  honeyed  sentences." 

It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  of  him  that  he  established 
a  new  standard  of  American  eloquence,  that  he  was  the 
founder  of  a  new  school  of  occasional  oratory,  of  which 
he  was  at  once  the  acknowledged  master  and  the  best 
pupil,  and  in  which  we  were  all  proud  to  sit  at  his  feet 
as  disciples.  Would  that  we  had  been  better  scholars  ! 
Would  that,  now  that  he  has  been  snatched  so  suddenly 
from  our  sight,  and  as  we  follow  him  to  the  skies  with 
our  parting  acclamations  of  admiration  and  affection,  we 
could  feel  that  there  were  some  shoulders  not  wholly 
unworthy  to  wear,  not  altogether  incapable  of  sustaining, 
his  falling  mantle  ! 

I  need  not  dwell  for  a  moment,  my  friends,  upon  the 
details  of  his  official  life.  We  all  remember  his  earlier 
and  his  later  relations  to  the  University  to  which  he  was 
so  ardently  attached,  and  which  has  ever  counted  him 
among  its  proudest  ornaments.  We  all  remember  how 
long  and  how  faithfully  he  served  the  State  and  the  Na 
tion  in  their  highest  departments  at  home  and  abroad. 
But  public  office  was  not  necessary  to  his  fame,  and  he 
never  held  his  title  to  consideration  al&  the  precarious 


MEETING   IN  FANEUIL   HALL.  51 

tenure  of  public  favor  or  popular  suffrage.  Office  gave 
no  distinction  to  the  man ;  but  the  man  gave  a  new  dis 
tinction  and  a  new  dignity  to  every  office  which  he  held. 
Everywhere  he  was  the  consummate  scholar,  the  brilliant 
orator,  the  Christian  gentleman,  —  greater,  even,  as  a  pri 
vate  citizen  than  in  the  highest  station  to  which  he  ever 
was,  or  ever  could  have  been  called. 

I  need  not  dwell  for  a  moment,  either,  my  friends, 
upon  the  purity  and  beauty  of  his  daily  life,  upon  his  de 
votion  to  his  family,  his  fidelity  to  his  friends,  his  integ 
rity  as  a  man,  his  untiring  willingness  and  eagerness  to 
do  kind  and  obliging  things  for  all  who,  reasonably  or  un 
reasonably,  asked  them  at  his  hands,  at  any  cost  of  time 
or  trouble  to  himself.  I  can  never  fail,  certainly,  to  re 
member  his  countless  acts  of  kindness  to  myself  during  a 
friendship  of  thirty  years.  I  do  not  forget  that  at  least 
once  in  my  life  I  have  differed  from  him  on  important 
questions,  and  that  recently;  but  I  can  honestly  say  that 
there  was  no  living  man  from  whom  I  differed  with  a 
deeper  regret,  or  with  a  greater  distrust  of  my  own  judg 
ment.  Nor  can  I  fail  to  remember  with  inexpressible  joy 
at  this  hour,  that  within  a  week,  I  had  almost  said  within 
a  day,  after  that  difference  was  avowed  and  acted  upon, 
he  reciprocated  most  kindly  and  most  cordially  an  assur 
ance,  that  our  old  relations  of  friendship  and  affection 
should  suffer  no  estrangement  or  interruption,  and  that 
we  would  never  distrust  each  other's  sincerity  or  each 
other's  mutual  regard.  "  I  am  not  afraid,"  he  wrote  me, 
"  that  we  shall  give  "each  other  cause  of  offence  ;  and  we 
will  not  let  others  put  us  at  variance." 


52  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

Fellow-Citizens :  I  knew  not  how  to  commence  these 
imperfect  and  desultory  remarks,  and  I  know  not  how  to 
close  them.  There  is,  I  am  sensible,  much  to  console  us 
in  our  bereavement,  severe  and  sudden  as  it  is.  We  may 
well  rejoice  and  be  grateful  to  God,  that  our  illustrious 
and  beloved  friend  was  the  subject  of  no  lingering  illness 
or  infirmity,  that  he  was  permitted  to  die  while  in  the  full 
possession  of  his  powers,  while  at  the  very  zenith  of  his 
fame,  and  while  he  had  a  hold  on  the  hearts  of  his  coun 
trymen  such  as  even  he  had  never  before  enjoyed.  We 
may  well  rejoice,  too,  that  his  voice  was  last  heard  in  ad 
vocating  a  measure  of  signal  humanity  which  appealed  to 
every  heart  throughout  the  land,  and  that  he  lived  to  see 
of  the  fruit  of  his  lips  and  to  be  satisfied.  I  hold  in  my 
hand  one  of  his  last  notes,  —  written  on  Thursday  evening 
to  our  munificent  and  excellent  fellow-citizen,  Mr.  Wil 
liam  Gray,  and  which,  in  his  own  necessary  and  regretted 
absence,  he  has  kindly  permitted  me  to  read :  — 

"  SUMMER  STREET,  12  Jan.  1865.  ' 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Gray  :  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  send 
ing  me  word  of  the  success  of  the  Savannah  subscription.  What 
a  large-hearted,  open-handed  place  we  live  in  !  It  is  on  these  oc 
casions  that  I  break  the  tenth  commandment,  and  covet  the  wealth 
of  you  millionaires.  I  have  been  in  bed  almost  ever  since  Mon 
day,  having  narrowly  escaped  an  attack  of  pneumonia.  I  had 
been  in  the  court-house  all  the  morning,  and  had  to  return  to  it 
for  three  hours  in  the  afternoon  to  attend  to  a  harassing  arbitration 
case,  and  left  Faneuil  Hall  with  my  extremities  ice,  and  my  lungs 
on  fire.  But  in  such  a  cause  one  is  willing  to  suffer. 

"  Ever  sincerely  yours, 

"  EDWARD  EVERETT." 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL   HALL.  53 

This  little  note,  my  friends,  in  his  own  unmistakable 
and  inimitable  hand,  written  within  two  days  of  his  death, 
shows  clearly  what  thoughts  were  uppermost  in  that 
noble  heart,  before  it  so  suddenly  ceased  to  beat.  In  such 
a  cause  he  was  willing  to  suffer.  In  such  a  cause  he  was 
not  unwilling  to  die. 

But  whatever  consolation  may  be  found  in  the  circum 
stances  of  his  death,  or  in  the  occupation  of  his  last 
years,  or  months,  or  days,  we  still  cannot  but  feel  that  no 
heavier  public  calamity  could  at  this  moment,  if  at  any 
moment,  have  befallen  our  community.  We  cannot  but 
feel  that  not  Boston  only,  not  Massachusetts  only,  not 
New  England  only,  but  our  whole  country,  is  called  to 
deplore  the  loss  of  its  most  accomplished  scholar,  its 
most  brilliant  orator,  its  most,  valuable  citizen.  More 
and  more,  as  the  days  and  the  years  roll  on,  will  that 
loss  be  perceived  and  felt  by  all  who  have  known,  ad 
mired,  and  loved  him.  The  public  proceedings  of  this 
day,  the  sad  ceremonials  of  to-morrow,  will  find  their 
place  on  the  page  of  history.  All  the  customary  trib 
utes  of  respect  and  gratitude  to  our  lamented  friend 
will  at  no  distant  day  be  completed.  We  shall  hang 
his  portrait  on  these  hallowed  walls  in  fit  companion 
ship  with  the  patriot  forms  which  already  adorn  them. 
We  shall  place  a  statue  of  him,  in  due  time,  I  trust, 
on  yonder  terrace,  not  far  from  that  of  his  illustrious 
and  ever-honored  friend.  But  neither  portrait  nor  statue, 
nor  funeral  pomp,  nor  public  eulogy,  will  have  done 
for  his  memory,  what  he  has  done  for  it  himself.  The 
name  and  the  fame  of  Edward  Everett  will  in  no  way  more 


54  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

surely  be  perpetuated  than  by  the  want  which  will  be  ex 
perienced,  by  the  aching  void  which  will  be  felt,  on  all  our 
occasions  of  commemoration,  on  all  our  days  of  jubilee, 
on 'every  literary  anniversary,  at  every  festive  board,  in 
every  appeal  for  education,  for  charity,  for  country,  in 
every  hour  of  peril,  in  every  hour  of  triumph,  from  the 
loss  of  that  .ever-ready,  ever-welcome  voice,  which  has  so 
long  been  accustomed  to  say  the  best,  the  most  appropri 
ate,  the  most  effective  word,  in  the  best,  the  most  appropri 
ate,  the  most  effective  manner.  For  nearly  half  a  century 
no  public  occasion  has  ever  seemed  complete  without 
his  presence.  By  a  thousand  conspicuous  acts  of  pub 
lic  service,  by  a  thousand  nameless  labors  of  love,  for 
young  and  old,  for  rich  and  poor,  for  friends  and  for  stran 
gers,  he  has  rendered  himself  necessary  —  so  far  as  any 
one  human  being  ever  can  be  necessary  —  to  the  wel 
fare  and  the  honor  of  the  community  in  which  he 
lived.  I  can  find  no  words  for  the  oppression  I  feel, 
in  common,  I  am  sure,  with  all  who  hear  me,  at  the 
idea  that  we  shall  see  his  face  and  hear  his  voice  no 
more.  As  I  looked  on  his  lifeless  form  a  few  hours 
only  aftev  his  spirit  had  returned  to  God  who  gave  it, 
—  as  I  saw  those  lips  which  we  had  so  often  hung 
upon  with  rapture,  motionless  and  sealed  in  death,  — 
and  as  I  reflected  that  all  those  marvellous  acquisitions 
and  gifts,  that  matchless  memory,  that  exquisite  diction, 
that  exhaustless  illustration,  that  infinite  variety,  which 
no  age  could  wither  and  no  custom  stale,  —  that  all,  all 
were  henceforth  lost  to  us  forever,  I  could  only  recall 
the  touching  lines  which  I  remembered  to  have  seen 


MEETING  IN   FANEUIL  HALL.  55 

applied  to  the  sudden  death,  not  many  years  ago,  of  a 
kindred  spirit  of  old  England, —  one  of  her  greatest 
statesmen,  one  of  his  most  valued  friends  — 

"  Could  not  the  grave  forget  thee,  and  lay  low 
Some  less  majestic,  less  beloved  head? 
Those  who  weep  not  for  Kings  shall  weep  for  thee, 
And  Freedom's  heart  grow  heavy  at  thy  loss  !  " 

Hon.  Alexander  H.  Bullock,  then  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  MAYOR  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  — 

This  place  which  welcomed  him  through  so  many 
years,  this  hour  of  noon  in  which  he  so  often  charmed 
and  instructed  us,  the  tones  of  his  voice  yet  lingering 
here  to  plead  a  sublime  charity,  are  better  than  the 
written  or  spoken  words,  with  which  you  seek  to  en 
compass  with  mournful  honors  the  name  of  our  illus 
trious  and  departed  citizen.  And  yet  the  ties  of  state, 
the  pride  of  fellowship,  the  memory  of  services,  bring 
us  by  instinct  here  to  form  the  long  train  of  those  who 
lament  this  death,  so  unexpected,  so  timely.  Our  as 
sembling  is  not  to  add  honors  to  him  who  had  won  his 
own,  but  to  testify  in  the  general  grief,  that,  born  among 
us,  living  his  life  in  the  presence  of  us,  placed  by  us 
in  the  highest  positions  with  which  we  could  invest 
him,  he  kept  to  the  last,  bright  and  electric  the  sympa 
thies  of  the  mutual  relationship,  so  that  when  he  passed 
away,  we,  above  all  others,  felt  the  shock  of  the  separ 
ation.  He  not  only  died  among  his  kindred,  but  in  the 
midst  of  a  people  who  had  made  him  especially  their 


56  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

own.  He  was  the  contemporary  of  two  generations  in 
the  State,  but  his  mental  activity,  his  increasing  wis 
dom,  his  maturing  fame,  had  made  Mr.  Everett,  beyond 
the  lot  of  most  men,  a  brighter  and  more  particular 
treasure  to  the  second  generation,  than  he  had  been  to 
the  first.  The  pall  fell  from  heaven  at  the  right  mo 
ment.  Never  before  had  we  respected  him  so  greatly, 
never  before  had*we  esteemed  him  so  tenderly,  as  when 
he  died  crowned  with  age  that  bore  the  emblems  of 
youth,  rich  in  renown  that  blended  the  splendor  of 
manhood  with  the  mellow  lustre  of  later  years,  carry 
ing  to  the  portals  of  immortality  that  noble  vindication 
of  a  long  life  which  devotion  to  patriotism  and  philan 
thropy  best  furnishes  as  the  closing  scene. 

This  is  not  the  time  to  pass  in  review  the  varied 
career  of  our  lamented  statesman  and  scholar.  He  ivas 
statesman  and  scholar  in  the  highest  sense,  and  he 
made  the  two  characters  reflect  upon  each  other,  that 
light  and  glory  which,  when  blended,  makes  the  life  of 
a  public  man  most  radiant.  Here  in  this  mart  of  com 
merce  I  hold  up  his  name  in  behalf  of  the  retreats  of 
the  schools.  His  early  academic  success,  which  for 
example  and  fascination  was  the  first  and  best  our 
country  has  supplied,  upon  which  he  never  turned  an 
averted  face,  as  men  are  accustomed  too  frequently  to 
do  in  the  rude  turmoil  of  our  politics,  was  a  life-long 
and  elemental  power  which  he  wielded  in  every  sphere 
of  his  labors.  He  carried  it  from  yonder  shades  into 
Congress ;  was  never  ashamed  to  use  it  there ;  never 
fell  away  from  it,  and  rose  upon  it  to  the  respect  and 


MEETING    IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  57 

admiration  of  his  associates.  No  man  from  Eton  or 
Oxford  ever  did  more  in  this  respect  for  the  parliament 
of  Great  Britain,  than  he  has  done  for  ours.  So 
Canning  graced  and  delighted  her  Commons;  so  the 
ignorance  of  Castlereagh  was  more  than  once  rebuked ; 
so  Pitt  made  a  broad  scholarship  an  instrument  of 
power  —  a  weapon  for  an  onset.  Our  Canning  produced 
the  same  effect  by  the  scope  and  beauty  of  his  exam 
ple,  though  among  older,  more  arrogant,  more  over 
powering  men,  it  was  not  in  accord  with  his  nature  to 
lead  in  the  positive  attack.  This  was  the  bed  whence 
blossomed  the  flowers  of  a  large  and  enduring  influence. 
Entering  Congress  in  its  palmiest  period,  and  continu 
ing  there  ten  years,  while  its  great  Senators  were  wont 
to  come  into  the  House  to  listen  to  our  Everett  and 
Choate,  it  was  fortunate  for  us  that  he  so  kept  high 
the  standard  of  debate,  and  so  adorned  the  counsels  of 
statesmanship,  with  the  graces  of  learning  and  of  elo 
quence,  that  when  he  came  away  to  take  the  chair  of 

our  State  at   home,  he  left  behind  a  treasured   memory 

j 

of  cultured  mastery  for  the  ^  State  at  the  capitol.  I 
know  that  Mr.  Clay,  listening  to  him  for  the  first  time, 
then  thirty-five  or  six  years  of  age,  said  to  a  bystander, 
"  this  is  the  acme  of  eloquence."  Our  Commonwealth 
cannot  afford  to  forget  her  sons  who  have  given  her 
the  first  place  in  the  Federal  councils  —  who,  opening 
a  brilliant  career  for  themselves,  have  illustrated  her 
institutions  and  enlarged  her  capacity  for  beneficence. 
It  has  been  our  good  fortune,  to  have  had  there  a  long 
line  of  such  statesmen,  which  began  with  Ames,  which 


58  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWAKD   EVERETT. 

found  a  complete  representative  in  Everett.  Each  one 
has  been  a  stimulation  to  the  other.  Mr.  Choate  once 
told  me  that  while  residing  in  Washington  it  was  his 
pride  to  gather  up  the  scattered  traditions,  floating 
through  all  that  social  life,  of  the  forensic  eiforts  of 
Webster  ;  and  who  shall  say  how  much  his  own  trans 
cendent  idea  may  have  been  quickened  by  the  magic 
of  such  rumor?  Mr.  Everett  in  the  twelve  years  he 
served  in  the  two  houses,  so  far  as  I  know,  brought 
never  to  any  discussion,  a  rhetorical  treatment  that 
would  have  done  discredit  to  Burke,  or  Fox,  or  Rom- 
illy.  Such  attainment  deserves  our  perpetual  remem 
brance.  It  is  among  the  enduring  forces  by  which  we 
may  hope  to  influence  greater  States  and  greater  num 
bers  than  our  own  in  all  after  time. 

From  his  academic  and  Congressional  course  Mr. 
Everett  passed  to  the  curule  chair  of  Massachusetts. 
He  held  it  in  those  dull  times  of  peace,  four  years, 
while  it  furnished  no  deep  excitements  to  his  ambition. 
It  was  not  a  time  or  a  place  for  special  originations. 
The  genius  of  that  period  was  the  genius  of  some 
improvement,  but  of  more  routine.  And  yet  I  conceive 
that  he  performed  a  good  work  for  us,  and  for  poster 
ity,  in  his  support  of  our  grand  State  system  existing 
already,  and  as  the  official  patron  of  those  greater  and 
better  plans  of  education  and  charity  which  make  States 
immortal.  It  is  now  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  his 
administration  terminated,  and  in  the  more  conspicuous 
action  which  has  since  distinguished  him  on  broader 
and  more  fertile  fields  of  fame,  that  has  been  compari- 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL   HALL.  59 

lively  obscured.  But  it  was  an  essential  portion  of  his 
life.  His  record  as  chief  magistrate  is  without  blemish. 
He  never  lowered  the  dignity  of  state ;  he  never  called 
unworthy  counsel  around  him ;  he  left  the  office  un 
tarnished  as  he  found  it. 

It  does  not  comport  with  my  purpose  of  brevity  to 
detain  you  with  reminiscences  which  belong  to  protracted 
address  or  stated  biography.  I  regard  as  among  the 
more  striking  services,  he  has  rendered,  his  connection 
at  two  periods  with  our  foreign  affairs.  You  remember 
how  the  advent  of  Mr.  Webster  to  the  Department  of 
State  found  Mr.  Everett  in  a  foreign  land,  whither  he 
had  repaired  for  a  scholar's  travel  and  a  scholar's  sol 
ace.  At  the  call  of  the  President  he  accepted  the  cre 
dentials  for  the  highest  court  of  Europe.  It  was  a 
critical  period.  History  is  too  busy  now  with  graver 
matters  at  home  to  have  much  space  for  that;  but  it 
was  a  critical  epoch.  The  shadows  of  war  frowned  from 
the  Canadas  ;  the  fires  of  the  Caroline  lighted  up  the 
frontier.  We  came  out  of  the  crisis  without  the  stain 
of  blood  or  the  discolor  of  smoke  upon  our  diplomatic 
robes.  You  may  distribute  the  honors  as  you  please 
among  Webster,  and  Ashburton,  and  Everett,  but  he  who 
stood  our  representative  before  the  grandest  court  of  the 
world,  in  constant  correspondence  and  mutual  counsel  with 
his  great  friend  at  the  capitol,  cannot  be  overlooked  in 
the  impartial  distribution. 

About  ten  years  later,  he  himself  was  called  to  the 
Department  of  State,  which '  was  vacant.  It  had  been 
vacated  by  the  death  of  Daniel  Webster.  It  was  a 


60  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

great  vacancy,  which  no  man  could  fill  so  well.  Think 
a  moment,  to  what  statesmanship  in  diplomacy  Mr.  Ev 
erett  succeeded.  Have  you  sufficiently  reflected,  that 
great  as  Webster  has  been  at  the  bar,  and  in  the  Senate, 
he  was  greater  still  at  the  august  international  tribunal, 
in  the  court  of  nations,  before  the  juries  of  history] 
Such  he  proved  himself  to  be.  How.  under  Harrison, 
he  asserted  himself,  and  vindicated  his  country  to  un 
precedented  grandeur.  How,  in  the  case  of  the  Caro 
line,  he  dramatized  the  literature  of  the  international 
code  by  the  elements  of  his  conception  and  the  majesty 
of  his  rhetoric.  How,  in  the  question  of  impressment, 
he  settled  all  that  Rush  and  those  after  him  had  left 
loose  and  unadjusted,  by  the  memorable  despatch,  which 
has  never  received  a  reply  and  never  can  receive  a  re 
futation.  How,  in  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  he  drew 
those  northeastern  lines  with  the  precision  of  science 
and  with  the  power  of  destiny,  that  shall  last  forever. 
Mr.  Everett  succeeded  to  HIS  chair,  and  carried  with 
him  the  confidence  of  Massachusetts  that  he  would 
prove  equal  to  the  exigency.  The  teacher  had  departed, 
but  the  disciple  remained  to  complete  his  mission.  It 
was  a  new  era  in  his  life ;  but  he  more  than  matched 
its  necessities.  By  one  comprehensive  study,  by  one 
continuous  and  magnetic  triumph  of  his  pen,  he  raised 
what  some  of  us  thought  the  effete  and  demoralized 
administration  of  Fillmore,  to  the  respect  of  a  chival 
rous  people.  His  tri-partite  letter,  unique,  original,  and 
independent,  justified  our  America  upon  a  base  exclu 
sively  her  own.  The  philosophy  of  that  letter  was  well 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  61 

V 

then;  it  is  better  now.  It  is  a  quiver  from  which  we 
may  draw  the  weapons  against  any  and  every  European 
intervention.  Mr.  Everett  of  the  Cabinet  of  1852  is 
our  diplomatic  instructor  this  day.  He  asserted  a  pol 
icy  upon  which  we  will  stand  and  defy  interference; 
he  touched  chords  of  country  which  will  vibrate  while 
this  war  shall  last ;  he  lifted  the  clear  signal  to  nations 
which  may  in  some  day  of  the  future  become  the  nam 
ing  cross  of  deliverance  to  Mexico.  In  the  ripeness  of 
his  age  he  was,  at  the  hour  of  his  death,  I  apprehend, 
one  of  the  most  just  and  equitable  and  learned  and  best 
balanced  expounders  of  international  law  on  the  globe. 
If  he  might  have  lived  to  execute  his  purpose,  the 
volume  which  he  proposed  upon  the  laws  and  rights  of 
nations  would,  I  believe,  have  placed  him  at  the  head 
of  that  sublime  jurisprudence  which  is  founded  upon 
the  historic  lessons  of  Christian  civilization. 

We  are  about  to  bury  our  foremost  scholar  and  ora 
tor.  Do  not  suppose  that  I  intend  to  analyze  now  the 
remarkable  eloquence  of  Mr.  Everett.  I  only  allude  to 
it.  He  was  a  perfect  literary  artist;  but  this  idea  of 
him  has  in  some  minds  been  the  source  of  most  unjust 
conception  as  to  the  wider  domain  of  his  force  and  his 
power.  And  this  injustice,  while  it  is  according  to  ex 
perience,  is  also  unphilosophical.  Mr.  Webster  in  his 
practice  was  scarcely  less  observant  of  the  dramatic  cir 
cumstances  of  public  eloquence ;  but  rising  on  broader 
and  deeper  foundations,  being  less  frequent  and  conver 
sant  with  the  schools,  cast  in  the  mould  of  country  life 
and  more  familiar  with  its  sympathies,  and  more  than  all, 


62  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

trained  in  that  most  democratical  discipline  of  trials 
before  juries,  lie  escaped  the  reputation  of  speaking  ac 
cording  to  art.  No  man,  however,  ever  understood  this 
art  better  than  he.  With  him,  this  characteristic  assumed 
the  form  not  of  a  fine  art,  but  of  the  power  of  drama. 
It  is  not  worth  while  to  cite  illustrations,  but  the  fact 
is  known  to  all  close  critics.  His  library,  his  study  was 
veiled  to  the  world,  but  he  himself  passed  the  long  and 
solemn  hours  behind  the  curtain,  before  his  stately  form 
emerged  to  attract  the  wonder  of  men.  Mr.  Everett 
never  could  extinguish  the  midnight  lamp,  never  could 
disguise  the  alcoves  he  loved.  But  no  man  in  our  day 
has  painted  so  well,  and  left  no  specific  trace  of  how  the 
colors  had  been  applied.  I  doubt  if  at  any  time,  until 
within  the  last  ten  years,  educated  men  have  quite  done 
him  justice  in  this  particular.  Art  is  apt  to  conceal  the 
substance  of  greatness  ;  manner  oftentimes  overshades  the 
matter.  It  is  so  through  all  of  life.  Robert  Walpole 
was  really  one  of  the  ablest  of  British  premiers  ;  but  his 
adherence  to  the  arts  of  his  office  lost  him  the  credit  of 
his  administration  in  the  popular  judgment.  He  who 
shall  pronounce  your  formal  eulogy  upon  Mr.  Everett 
cannot  say  that  his  eloquence  had  exactly  the  sweeping 
majesty  which  bore  Chatham  or  Webster  through  periods 
swelling  and  resounding  like  a  national  anthem,  or  like 
the  thunders  of  great  armadas  on  the  sea ;  such  pas 
sages  come  rarely  to  human  ears  ;  they 

"  Come  as  the  winds  come,  when  forests  are  rended  : 
Come  as  the  waves  come,  when  navies  are  stranded." 


MEETING  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  63 

But  he  shall  accord  to  him  the  finest  and  most  complete 
proportions  that  have  marked  any  orator  of  this  age. 
The  mould  of  personal  form,  all  the  graces,  the  voice, 
the  cadences,  partly  constitutional  and  partly  acquired, 
all  that  is  histrionic  and  attractive,  all  that  nature  could 
furnish  and  art  could  add,  belonged  in  largest  measure 
and  in  purest  style  to  him.  But  this  is  only  the  form, 
the  style  and  the  stage.  There  was  a  greatness  of 
character  behind  all  this.  You  sometimes  overlooked 
the  depth  of  his  philosophy,  the  richness  of  his  reflection, 
only  because  he  pleased  and  beguiled  you.  Not  a  sen 
tence  unnecessary,  not  a  word  unessential,  can  you  find 
in  all  that  he  has  said  or  written.  He  never  rejected 
truisms  if  they  might  be  profitable ;  but  he  illuminated 
them  with  the  choicest  colors  of  the  rainbow.  He  never 
neglected  the  lessons  of  religion,  or  science,  or  experi 
ence,  but  he  had  the  genius  to  make  them  winning  as  a 
first  love.  He  had  exquisite  humor  and  subtle  art ;  but 
if  it  escaped  his  tongue  or  pen  it  was  quite  likely  to  min 
gle  with  some  pensive  thought  that  toned  it  down  to 
marvellous  sobriety  and  beauty.  His  smile  on  the  plat 
form  was  of  that  kind  which  we  are  told  belongs  to 
genius,  because  melancholy  is  a  part  of  genius  ;  and  yet 
it  pleased  us,  because  it  was  uncommon  and  serene.  He 
had  a  peculiar  tenderness  of  oratory. 

But  the  eloquence  of  Mr.  Everett  ended  not  here.  He 
had  all  knowledge,  all  gifts,  all  tongues.  No  man  of  this 
generation,  save  Macaulay,  had  equal  command  of  the 
treasures  of  the  ages.  No  orator  in  America,  from  the 
first  until  now,  has  so  woven  into  his  addresses  the  in- 


64  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD  EVERETT. 

structions  of  history.  This  I  have  thought  to  be  his 
specialty.  His  memory  was  comprehensive,  retentive, 
and  perfect.  He  had  read  everything,  and  he  remem 
bered  all  that  he  had  read.  There  is  no  such  treasury 
for  an  orator  as  that,  if  he  have,  all  the  other  plenitudes, 
powers  and  graces,  as  Mr.  Everett  possessed  them.  Ac 
cordingly,  for  an  entire  generation,  he  has  instructed  his 
country  in  historical  knowledge  and  historical  analogies, 
and  his  instructions  have  had  the  charm  of  freshness,  and 
naturalness,  and  fitness.  In  this  department  of  usefulness, 
broad  enough  for  the  highest  ambition,  he  has  had  no 
equal  among  all  his  countrymen.  In  this  we  have  always 
delighted  to  call  him  our  master  and  our  guide.  And 
thus,  to  our  Congress  and  our  Cabinets,  to  our  cultured 
men  and  to  all  our  people,  he  has  been  a  splendid 
educator.  His  instructions  have  descended  from  his 
own  elevated  table-land,  through  our  social  strata,  puri 
fying  and  ennobling  every  class  of  mind,  fascinating  by 
their  gorgeous  but  natural  array,  and  carrying  on  their 
wing  the  transport  of  communicated  thought  and  knowl 
edge.  I  appropriate  to  him  the  eulogy  from  Milton ; 
"  I  shall  detain  you  no  longer  in  the  demonstration, 
but  strait  conduct  ye  to  a  hill-side,  were  I  will  point  ye 
out  the  right  path  of  a  virtuous  and  noble  education ; 
laborious  indeed  at  the  first  ascent,  but  also  so  smooth, 
so  green,  so  full  of  goodly  prospect,  and  melodious 
sounds  on  every  side,  that  the  harp  of  Orpheus  was 
not  more  charming." 

His  greatest  days  were  his  last.     The  country  did  not 
know  him  perfectly  until   1861.     Then    he  renewed   his 


MEETING   IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  65 

youth  ;  then  he  broke  away  from  his  own  traditions  and 
associations,  and  mounted  to  that  wise,  large  patriotism 
which  has  guided  twenty  loyal  millions  to  life  and  glory. 
He  waited  not  for  others,  nor  for  the  victory  of  our 
arms ;  but  in  those  first  days  of  war  and  gloom,  his 
voice  sounded  like  a  clarion  over  this  land.  Almighty 
God  be  praised  that  he  has  been  spared  to  us  these 
four  years !  In  these  temples  of  your  eloquence,  in 
that  commercial  metropolis  where  his  counsel  was  more 
needed,  everywhere,  and  every  day,  by  public  speech 
and  through  the  popular  press,  he  has  confirmed  hesi 
tating  men  at  home,  he  has  inspired  your  armies  in 
the  field.  These  victories  which  fill  the  air  to-day, 
peal  grandly  over  his  inanimate  form ;  they  cannot 
wake  him  from  sleep,  but  they  are  a  fitting  salute  for 
his  burial.  He  passes  to  his  rest  when  the  whole 
heaven  is  lighted  up  to  proclaim  that  his  mission  has 
been  accomplished.  The  same  page  of  the  calendar 
shall  repeat  to  the  next  age,  THE  DEATH  OF  EVERETT  AND 

THE    NEW    LIFE   OF    HIS    COUNTRY. 

Mr.  James  M.  Beebe  offered  the  following  additional  resolution, 
which  was  inserted  in  the  list  originally  reported,  and  the  whole 
series  was  then  unanimously  adopted  :  — 

Resolved,  That  as  a  tribute  of  respect  to  the  mem 
ory  of  Mr.  Everett,  this  meeting  recommend  to  our 
fellow-citizens  that  the  banks,  insurances  offices,  and 
other  places  of  business  be  closed  to-morrow  at  the 
hour  set  apart  for  his  funeral. 


66 


MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 


In  accordance  with  one  of  the  resolutions  the  Chairman  ap 
pointed  the  following-named  gentlemen  a  Committee  to  take 
measures  for  the  erection  of  a  statue  in  honor  of  Edward 
Everett. 


Charles  G.  Loring, 
Robert  C.  Winthrop, 
George  Livermore, 
J.  H.  Wolcott, 
Geo.  B.  Upton, 
Geo.  C.  Richardson, 
Otis  Norcross, 
Edward  S.  Tobey, 
Nathaniel  Thayer, 
Jas.  M.  Beebe, 
James  Lawrence, 
Eben  Dale, 
Martin  Brimmer, 
F.  E.  Parker, 
Gardner  Brewer, 
Sidney  Bartlett, 
Geo.  S.  Hillard, 
Daniel  N.  Haskell, 
Charles  F.  Dunbar, 
Geo.  Wm.  Bond, 
J.  Tisdale  Bradlee, 
John  S.  Tyler, 
Wm.  Endicott,  jr. 
Henry  A.  Pierce, 
J.  W.  Seaver, 
Henry  P.  Kidder, 
Wm.  B.  Fowle,  jr. 


Geo.  Ticknor, 
Jacob  Bigelow, 
J.  Mason  Warren, 
Wm.  Araory, 
Chas.  Amory, 
Edw.  Austin, 
J.  J.  Dixwell, 
Sam'l  D.  Crane, 
W.  W.  Clapp,  jr. 
Josiah  Quincy, 
Oliver  Ditson, 
Jos.  T.  Bailey, 
J.  G.  Palfrey, 
Geo.  W.  Messinger, 
S.  K.  Lothrop, 
C.  G.  Greene, 
Albert  Fearing, 
Sam'l  H.  Walley, 
Rufus  Ellis, 
J.  Ingersoll  Bowditch, 
Chas.  O.  Rogers, 
Francis  Bacon, 
Wm.  Gray, 
Henry  I.  Bowditch, 
Albert  Bowker, 
Albert  J.  Wright, 
O.  W.  Holmes, 


MEETING   IN   FANEUIL   HALL.  67 

.     Samuel  G.  Ward,  Thomas  G.  Appleton, 

Richard  H.  Dana,  James  L.  Little, 

Thomas  Gaffield,  Peter  Harvey, 

J.  M.  Wightman. 

On  motion,  the  name   of  His  Honor  Mayor  Lincoln  was  added 
to  the  Committee. 

The  meeting  then  dissolved. 


FUNERAL 


Library* 


THE    EUNERAL 


THE  funeral  of  Mr.  Everett  took  place  on  Thursday,  Jan 
uary  19.  The  public  solemnities  were  under  the  charge  of 
the  Committee  of  the  City  Council,  and  were  conducted  with 
as  little  display  as  the  proprieties  of  the  occasion  would  permit. 
Since  the  death  of  Mr.  Webster  no  such  general  and  profound 
manifestations  of  sorrow  had  been  exhibited.  The  announcement 
made  by  order  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  on  Sunday, 
had  led  many  to  expect  that  he  would  honor  the  obsequies  with  his 
presence ;  his  official  duties,  however,  rendered  it  impracticable ; 
and  on  Wednesday,  a  despatch  was  received  from  Mr.  Seward, 
stating  that  fact,  and  tendering  to  the  Commonwealth  the  condo 
lence  of  the  President  and  the  Heads  of  Departments,  "  on  the 
lamented  death  of  Edward  Everett,  who  was  worthy  to  be 
enrolled  among  the  noblest  of  the  nation's  benefactors." 

The  public  services  were  held  in  the  First  Church  in  Chauncy 
Street,  where  Mr.  Everett  had  been  a  constant  attendant  for  many 
years.  Although  the  weather  was  unusually  cold,  and  the  ground 
was  covered  with  snow,  the  streets  in  the  vicinity,  and  along  the 
whole  route  of  the  procession,  were  crowded  with  people  long 
before  the  hour  appointed  for  the  ceremonies  to  begin.  It  being 
understood  that  the  galleries  of  the  church  would  be  reserved 


72  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

for  ladies,  an  immense  number  congregated  in  front  of  the  doors 
as  early  as  ten  o'clock,  and  waited  patiently,  until  the  doors  were 
opened  at  eleven  o'clock.^  All  public  buildings,  and  many  of  the 
places  of  business  in  the  city  were  closed.  In  the  Merchants' 
Exchange,  the  Public  Library,  the  Mercantile  Library,  and 
the  Union  Club  House,  emblems  of  mourning  were  displayed, 
and  on  public  and  private  buildings  the  national  flag  appeared  at 
half-mast. 

Previous  to  the  public  ceremonies  in  the  church,  there  were 
private  services  at  Mr.  Everett's  house  in  Summer  Street,  at 
which  Rev.  Edward  Everett  Hale  officiated.  None  but  the 
relatives  and  intimate  personal  friends  of  the  deceased  were  pres 
ent.  The  Independent  Corps  of  Cadets,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Holmes,  performed  guard  duty  in  front  of  the  house  during  the 
services,  and  at  their  conclusion  escorted  the  remains  to  the 
church.  The  following-named  gentlemen  acted  as  pallbearers  :  — 

EMORY  WASHBURN,  F.  W.  LINCOLN,  JR. 

Ex-Governor  of  Massachusetts.  Mayor  of  the  City. 

THOMAS  HILL,  GEORGE  T.  BIGELOW, 

President  of  Harvard  University.  Chief  Justice  Supreme  Court. 

GEORGE  TICKNOR,  ROBERT  C.  WINTHROP, 

Trustee  Public  Library.  President  Historical  Society. 

CHARLES   G.  LORING,  ASA  GRAY, 

Vice-President  Union  Club.  Pres.  of  Acad.  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

J.  D.  GRAHAM,  .     SILAS  H.  STRINGHAM, 

Colonel  United  States  Army.  Rear- Admiral  United  States  Navy. 

In  accordance  with  the  notice  issued  by  the  Chief  Marshal,  the 
delegations  from  various  organizations  which  had  signified  their 
desire  to  participate  in  the  ceremonies,  assembled  at  the  City 
Hall  at  half-past  elevm  o'clock,  and  marched  thence,  at  twelve 


THE   FUNEKAL.  73 

o'clock,  to  the  church.  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  the  mem 
bers  of  his  staff,  the  President  of  the  State  Senate,  the  Speaker 
of  the  House,  the  Joint  Committee  from  the  General  Court,  and 
the  Overseers  of  Harvard  University,  arrived  at  the  church  at 
the  same  time. 

Shortly  after  twelve  o'clock,  the  body  was  borne  into  the  church, 
and  up  the  main  aisle.  The  entire  congregation  arose  and  remained 
standing,  until  the  coffin  was  placed  upon  the  table  below  the 
pulpit.  A  chant  was  performed  by  the  choir ;  and  Rev.  James 
Walker,  D.  D.,  the  venerable  ex-President  of  Harvard  University, 
then  offered  prayer,  and  read  appropriate  selections  from  the 
Scriptures.  Rev.  Rufus  Ellis,  pastor  of  the  church,  made  the 
following  address  :  — 

We  are  on  our  way  to  commit  to  the  earth  all  that 
was  mortal  of  a  great  and  good,  and  justly  famous  man; 
a  man  so  great,  so  good,  so  famous,  that  the  honors 
decreed  for  him  by  the  head  of  the  nation  will  be  most 
gratefully  rendered,  and  that  to  the  very  letter  of  the 
decree,  at  hpme  and  abroad,  wherever  the  national 
name  and  authority  are  recognized.  We  have  paused 
for  a  few  moments  and  laid  down  our  burden  within 
these  consecrated  walls  —  so  familiar  and  dear  to  him 
who  has  gone  from  us  —  that  we  may  acknowledge  the 
Giver  of  Life,  the  Father  of  Him  who  is  the  resurrec 
tion  and  the  life,  the  best  and  the  only  comforter.  It 
is  for  this  that  we  are  here,  believing  that  our  burden 
will  be  lightened  for  hands,  which  are  so  ready  to  hang 
down,  if  only  we  can  obtain  help  from  God. 

And  yet,  before  we  seek  the  refuge  of  prayer,  in 
the  name  and  the  faith  of  Christ,  a  word  must  be 
10 


74  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

spoken  to  this  great  company  —  a  word  from  heart  to 
heart  —  of  him  whom  you  revered  and  admired,  and 
loved ;  for  I  am  sure  that  the  most  halting  speech,  so 
it  be  sincere,  will  do  more  justice  than  silence,  to  the 
spirit  of  this  hour,  so  solemn,  and  yet  so  rich  in 
memories  and  in  hopes.  In  these  few  and  swiftly 
passing  moments,  I  cannot  tell  the  story  of  this  grandly 
completed  life,  as  full  of  works  as  of  days,  from  its 
boyhood,  mature  as  manhood,  to  its  age,  vigorous  as 
youth.  I  may  not  attempt  any  analysis  of  this  fine 
intellect,  or  try  to  explore  with  you,  the  hiding-places 
of  this  great  power.  I  shall  undertake  no  delineation 
of  a  character  which  was  always  most  admired  by 
those  who  were  brought  nearest  to  it,  and  which  like 
some  of  the  works  of  the  most  conscientious  artists, 
was  most  finished  where  it  made  the  least  show.  We 
are  on  our  way  to  a  grave,  and  our  words  must  be 
few,  and  they  may  be  very  simple,  for  uppermost  in 
our  minds  and  abounding  in  our  hearts,  are  proud 
and  grateful  thoughts  of  the  departed,  which  the 
tongue  of  the  most  unlettered  might  tell. 

What  is  it,  friends,  that  has  made  this  man  so  very 
dear  to  the  .  people,  I  do  not  say  to  scholars,  to  the 
few,  but  to  the  people,  yea,  their  foremost  citizen  in 
these  times  when  God  has  made  "  a  man  more  precious 
than  fine  gold,  even  a  man  than  the  golden  wedge 
of  Ophir!"  Why  is  the  announcement  of  his  sudden 
death,  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  only  the 
utterance  of  a  nation's  sorrowing  heart]  I  answer, — 
you  answer,  —  not  merely  because  he  was  your  scholar 


THE    FUNERAL.  75 

and  a  ripe  and  good  one ;  not  merely  because  he  was 
your  orator,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  instructive 
of  men,  your  chief  speaker  for  every  grand  and  good 
occasion ;  not  merely  because  of  his  life-long  service 
to  letters  and  to  the  education  of  the  people ;  not 
merely  because  of  his  labors  for  the  State,  at  home 
and  abroad,  in  ordinary  times,  honorable,  admirable,  as 
he  ever  was  in  these  things  ;  but  because  in  the  hour 
of  sore  trial,  and  when  the  nation's  very  life  hung  in 
the  balance,  and  patriotism  was  something  more  than 
an  idle  word  for  the  trifler  to  ring  changes  upon,  he 
has  proved  himself  to  be  first,  last,  only,  and  altogether 
a  Christian  patriot,  an  American,  indeed,  in  whom  was 
no  guile,  resolved  at  all  costs  to  himself,  of  old  friend 
ships  if  need  be,  of  old  prejudices,  our  costliest 
possessions,  to  do  his  whole  duty  to  the  land  and  the 
people  of  his  affections,  as  to  the  mother  that  bore  him 
and  nourished  him,  and  led  him  up  to  his  grand  and 
serviceable  manhood.  I  mean  no  disparagement  of 
former  services ;  nay ;  where  some  might  criticise,  I 
should  justify,  and  yet  on  this  day  of  his  solemn 
burial  I  say  honor  to  this  large,  this  regal  soul,  which 
could  not  sacrifice  itself  to  obsolete  ideas,  or  go  about, 
with  the  dead  burying  their  dead,  or  crush  the 
throbbing  life  of  to-day  under  any  old  traditions ; 
honor  to  him  who  could  see  that  old  principles  may 
demand  new  methods,  and  that  the  wisdom  of  yester 
day  may  be  the  folly  of  to-day.  During  these  grand 
historic  years,  years  in  which  many  an  hour  has  been 
worth  whole  months  of  commonplace  existence,  with 


76  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

the  rest  of  the  nation,  he  has  been  passing  through 
the  refiner's  fire,  and  you  have  found,  dear  friends,  to 
your  joy,  for  nothing  refreshes  and  delights  us  so  much 
as  to  be  able  to  reverence  and  admire,  and  love  — 
you  have  found  that  the  finest  gold  was  in  him,  that 
he  was  more  than  your  great  scholar,  more  than  your 
great  orator,  more  than  your  trusted  statesman  and 
diplomatist,  that  he  was  your  great  citizen  and  your 
brother  man,  your  country  his  country,  your  political 
faith  his  political  faith  —  not  a  man  to  babble  gar 
rulously  of  foreign  despotisms,  but  a  lover  and  a 
servant  of  our  republican  institutions,  his  heart  throb 
bing  with  your  hearts,  and  alive  with  sacred  national 
memories,  and  precious  hopes  for  humanity  sighing 
to  be  uplifted  and  redeemed.  How  manly,  how  con 
sistent,  how  steadfast,  how  unwearied  he  has  been, 
in  all  his  glorious  speaking  and  doing  from  the  first 
moment  when  our  nation's  life  was  assailed,  to  that 
day  so  fatal  to  us,  but  so  honorable  to  him,  when 
weighed  down  as  he  was  by  sickness,  and  already  entering 
into  the  death-shadow,  he  asked  help  in  such  eloquent 
words  for  those  who,  as  we  hope,  are  ceasing  to  be 
our  enemies,  in  the  name  of  that  holy  and  sweet 
charity  which  St.  Paul,  inspired  by  our  Lord,  has 
taught  us,  saying,  "  If  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him.'* 
So  he  took  up  in  the  time  of  his  age  and  for  his  last 
public  act,  the  sacred  office  which  he  had  laid  down 
in  youth,  and  was  found  at  the  last  a  gospel  preacher. 
When  the  history  of  our  nation's  regeneration  shall 
be  written, —  and  it  will  be  an  illuminated  record, — 


THE    FUNERAL.  77 

when  victory  and  peace,  which  are  as  sure  to  be  ours 
as  that  the  sun  burns  in  the  heavens,  shall  be  the 
reward  of  patient  struggle,  no  name  shall  shine  out  more 
brightly  upon  the  page,  or  be  pronounced  more  thank 
fully  by  the  lips,  than  the  name  of  him  for  whom  we 
both  rejoice  and  mourn  to-day.  In  these  last  great 
years  we  have  seen  the  beauty,  we  have  breathed  in 
the  fragrance  of  the  fair,  consummate  flower  of  a  noble 
plant.  Never  has  the  bright  sun  of  his  life  shone  with 
such  refulgent  brightness  as  when  it  neared  the  setting, 
but  was  even  more  a  giant  than  when  it  climbed  the 
morning  sky.  And  all  this  strength  was  blended  with 
so  much  gentleness,  all  this  earnest  speech  was  so  free 
from  bitterness  and  wrath,  all  this  public  virtue  was 
bound  up  with  so  much  private  worth  and  household 
love  and  Christian  faith.  Alas!  that  his*  day  must 
needs  come  !  Strange !  that  when  so  many  only  cumber 
the  earth,  and  eat  and  drink,  but  do  not  die  to-morrow ! 
Alas !  that  we  are  here  and  without  him,  with  only  this 
sacred  dust,  precious  indeed  in  our  sight  and  to  be 
borne  away  most  tenderly,  and  yet  so  sadly  reminding 
us,  that  himself  is  gone.  Alas !  for  our  necessity  is  still 
so  great  and  our  counsellor  was  so  wise  and  so  noble, 
so  prudent  and  so  charitable,  so  thoroughly  furnished 
for  the  hour!  Would,  we  say,  that  God  who  hath  an 
eternity  to  give  from,  had  given  more  time  to  him  who 
knew  so  well  how  to  redeem  time !  And  yet,  my 
friends,  who  are  we  that  we  should  reply  against  God? 
and  hath  the  Christ  been  so  long  time  with  us  and 
have  we  not  yet  learned  to  trust  utterly  in  the 


78  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Divine  Providence,  in  Him  that  taketh  away  as  well  as 
in  Him  that  giveth,  in  Him  who  said  by  the  lips  of 
his  own  dear  Son,  "  Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into 
the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone,  but  if  it  die, 
it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit?"  Let  us  rather  give 
thanks  for  the  life  in  the  light  of  which  we  have 
lived  and  which  God  hath  crowned  with  glory  and 
honor  and  immortality,  for  its  years  of  devotion  to  the 
things  which  are  highest  and  holiest ;  stricken,  bereaved, 
let  us  bow  reverently  and  submissively  to  the  Divine 
decree,  and  have  no  will  but  that  Will  which  is  for 
ever  Love ;  let  us  have  faith  that  with  his  blessing  who 
appoints  for  us  our  works  and  our  days,  and  meteth  out 
our  span  with  an  unerring  wisdom,  there  shall  come 
forth,  life  from  this  death,  beauty  from  these  ashes,  life 
and  beauty  for  earth  as  well  as  for  heaven.  Being  dead 
he  doth  yet  speak  to  us,  if  only  we  have  open  ears, 
more  eloquently  than  even  he,  worthy  to  be  named 
with  the  most  famous  masters  of  speech  since  the  world 
began,  could  speak  to  us,  being  yet  alive.  But  why  do 
I  say  "  being  dead,"  seeing  that  the  righteous  live  for- 
evermore,  seeing  that  their  reward  is  with  the  Lord  and 
the  care  of  them  with  the  most  High,  and  that  below 
and  above,  He  giveth  to  them  a  beautiful  kingdom  and 
a  glorious  crown  and  an  abiding  ministry'?  Honor 
to  the  dead !  and  what  fitter  honor  can  we  pay  to  the 
dead  than  by  consecrating  ourselves,  about  these  re 
mains,  to  that  dear  country  whose  holy  cause  he  who 
is  gone  can  plead  no  longer  in  the  name  of  Humanity, 
of  Christ,  of  God,  to  whom  in  death,  and  in  life  be  glory 
forever  and  ever  !  Amen. 


THE    FUNERAL.  79 

Rev.  Mr.  Ellis,  then  offered  prayer,  and  after  a  hymn 
had  been  sung,  he  descended  from  the  pulpit  and  read  a 
portion  of  the  burial  service.  An  anthem  was  sung,  and  the 
services  were  concluded  with  a  benediction,  pronounced  by 
Eev.  Dr.  Walker. 

The  funeral  procession  was  formed  soon  after  one  o'clock, 
under  the  direction  of  the  following  officers :  — 

Chief  Marshal. 
BREVET  BRIG.  GEN.  F.  A.  OSBORN. 

Aids. 
GEO.  H.  KINGSBURY,  LIEUT. -CoL.  O.  W  PEABODY. 

Marshals. 

DAVID  H.  COOLIDGE,  A.  J.  C.  SOWDON, 

T.  B.  WINCHESTER,  S.  A.  STETSON, 

ELI  AS  B.  GLEASON,  CAPT.  J.  C.  MAKER, 

MAJ.  EDW.  C.  RICHARDSON,  W.  RALPH  EMERSON, 

H.  H.  COOLIDGE,  E.  R.  MEARS, 

CAPT.  J.  H.  LOMBARD.  CAPT.  JOHN  N.  PARTRIDGE. 

The  military  escort  was  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  C.  C.  Holmes,  with  Lieut.  G.  C.  Winsor  acting  as 
Aid-de-Camp. 

The  order  of  the  procession  was  as  follows :  — 

Drum  Corps. 

First  Unattached  Co.  Infantry,  M.  V.  M.    (Lincoln  Guard,) 
Capt.  M.  E.   Bigelow. 

Marine   Band. 

Battalion   of  Four    Companies  U.    S.   Marines.       Capt.   Lowry, 

Commanding. 


80  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Chelsea  Band,  (mounted.) 
Company   B,    First   Battalion   Light    Dragoons,    (Boston    Light 

Dragoons,)   Capt.  Charles  T.  Stevens. 
Company  A,  First  Battalion  Light  Dragoons,  (National  Lancers,) 

Capt.  Lucius  Slade. 
Pall  Bearers  in  Carriages. 

Brigade  Band. 

Independent    Corps   of    Cadets,    Major    Charles    B.    Raymond, 

Commanding;. 


Cadets. 


Cadets. 


Howitzer  Battery  of  the  Cadets. 
Relatives  of  the  Deceased  in  Carriages. 

Chief  Marshal  and  Aids. 
City    Council,    School    Committee,    and   Trustees   of  the   Public 

Library  of  the  City  of  Boston. 
His  Excellency,  the  Governor,  and  his  Staff. 
Executive    and   Legislative  Departments  of  the  Commonwealth. 
Corporation  and  Overseers  of  Harvard  College. 

Officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy. 
Justices  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court. 
Delegations  from :  — 

American  Antiquarian  Society. 

Massachusetts    Historical    Society. 

Massachusetts  Charitable  Mechanic  Association. 

Boston  Board  of  Trade. 
Professors  and  Students  of  Harvard  College. 

City  Government  of  Worcester. 

City    Government   of  Charlestown. 

Bunker    Hill    Monument    Association. 

Lexington  Monument  Association. 
New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society. 


THE    FUNERAL.  81 

Franklin  Medal  Scholars. 
Mercantile  Library  Association. 

Committee,  Master,  and  Pupils  of  the  Everett  School. 
Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company,  in  citizens'  dress. 

The  procession  began  to  move  at  two  o'clock  over  the  following 
route  :  through  Chauncy,  "Washington,  School,  Beacon,  Charles, 
and  Cambridge  streets  to  Cambridge  Bridge.  The  bells  on  all 
the  churches  in  the  city  were  tolled,  and  minute-guns  were  fired 
by  a  section  of  Light  Artillery,  on  the  Common,  during  the 
passage  of  the  procession  through  the  city.  The  streets  were 
lined  with  spectators,  many  of  whom  reverently  uncovered  their 
heads  as  the  hearse  passed.  At  Cambridge  Bridge  a  portion  of 
the  procession  was  dismissed.  The  Cadets  and  the  Brigade  Band, 
were  conveyed  to  Harvard  Square  in  cars.  The  procession  was 
there  reformed  again,  and  then  proceeded  to  Mount  Auburn 
Cemetery.  The  remains  of  Mr.  Everett  were  interred  in  the 
family  lot,  No.  17  Magnolia  Avenue.  There  were  no  services  at 
this  place.  Wreaths  of  white  flowers  and  evergreens  were  placed 
upon  the  coffin,  and  as  it  was  lowered  into  the  grave,  the  Brigade 
Band  began  the  solemn  strains  of  the  '  '  Dead  March  "  in  Saul. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  SCHOOL  COMMITTEE. 


IN  THE  SCHOOL  COMMITTEE. 


AT  a  meeting  of  the  School  Committee  of  the  City  of  Boston, 
on  Tuesday,  January  24,  1865,  His  Honor  the  Mayor  in  the 
Chair,  Rev.  S.  K.  Lothrop,  D.  D.,  made  the  following 
remarks  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  Since  the  last  meeting  of  this  Board, 
an  event  has  occurred  which  has  thrown  a  gloom  over 
our  city,  our  community,  our  country.  Edward  Everett, 
whose  name  for  more  than  fifty  years  has  been  held  in 
honor  among  us,  associated  with  learning,  literature, 
eloquence,  statesmanship,  philanthropy,  and  patriotism, 

—  who  has  filled  a  great  variety  of  public  offices   and 
adorned  them  all  by  rare  abilities  and  eminent  fidelity, 

—  whose   career  has  been  marked  by  an  unspotted  in 
tegrity,    purity,    and    a   large    usefulness,    has   suddenly 
been  called  from  among  us,  and  the  places  that  have  so 
long   known   him  here,   shall   know   him  no   more   for 
ever.      The    City    Government    have    taken   appropriate 
notice  of  this   sad  event.     The   authorities  of  the   State 
have  not  let  it  pass  unobserved  ;   the  Chief  Magistrate 
of  the  nation  has  called  the  attention  of  the  country  to 


86  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD  EVERETT. 

the  loss  of  a  devoted  patriot  —  its  foremost  private  citi 
zen,  —  and  as  the  intelligence  of  this  event  is  borne 
over  the  land  and  over  the  sea,  many  in  all  parts  of 
the  Christian  world,  will  receive  it  with  a  deep  regret, 
and  give  it  some  form  of  reverent  notice.  A  medal 
scholar  of  the  Boston  Public  Schools,  receiving  the  first 
rudiments  of  his  education  at  those  institutions  which 
are  under  the  special  charge  of  this  Board ;  retaining 
at  all  times  and  up  to  the  close  of  his  life  a  strong 
interest,  not  only  in  the  great  cause  of  popular  educa 
tion,  but  especially  in  the  Public  Schools  of  our  city, 
it  is  due  not  only  to  him,  but  to  ourselves,  that  our 
Records  should  contain  some  expression  of  our  gratitude 
for  his  services,  our  sorrow  at  his  death,  our  respect  for 
his  memory. 

I  ask  leave,  therefore,  Mr.  President,  to  submit  the 
following  resolutions,  and,  if  adopted,  to  have  them 
placed  upon  our  Kecords  :  — 

Whereas,  The  Hon.  Edward  Everett  died  suddenly, 
after  a  brief  illness,  at  his  residence  in  Summer  Street, 
on  Sunday  morning,  the  15th  instant,  the  School  Com 
mittee  of  the  City  of  Boston,  on  this  their  first  meeting 
after  his  decease,  desire  to  adopt,  and  place  upon  their 
Eecords  the  following  resolutions. 

Resolved,  That  we  share  in  the  universal  regre't  and 
sorrow  which  this  event  awakens,  and  sympathize  in  all 
the  private  and  public  tokens  of  profound  respect  so 
justly  paid  to  the  memory  of  one  who  has  enriched  our 
literature  by  his  learning  and  scholarship,  illustrated  our 
history,  and  instructed  our  people,  by  many  eloquent 


IN   THE    SCHOOL   COMMITTEE.  87 

orations  and  addresses,  elevated  public  and  political  life 
among  us  by  faithful  service  in  exalted  station,  and  by 
the  dignity,  purity,  and  unstained  integrity  of  his  char 
acter  and  conduct ;  who  has  often  stirred  our  patriotism 
by  his  fervent  appeals,  confirmed  it  by  his  cogent  argu 
ments,  guided  by  his  illustrious  example,  and  who, 
through  a  long  life  of  unr emitted  industry,  and  the 
noble  exercise  of  great  and  versatile  powers  in  manifold 
positions  and  offices,  and  by  a  beautiful  exhibition  of 
the  Christian  virtues,  in  private  and  domestic  relations, 
has  adorned  our  common  humanity,  and  left  us,  in  his 
fame,  a  legacy  to  be  cherished  with  gratitude  and  pride. 
Resolved,  That  it  is  specially  incumbent  upon  this 
Board,  instituted  for  the  promotion,  and  entrusted  with 
the  guardianship  of  the  Public  Schools  of  the  city,  to 
recognize  and  honor  his  name  and  services  as  connected 
with  the  cause  of  popular  education.  Eeceiving  his 
own  first  distinction  in  life  —  the  Franklin  Medal  — 
twice,  first  at  the  North  School  in  1804,  and  again  at 
our  Public  Latin  School  in  1806,  he  has  never  ceased, 
for  half  a  century,  amid  all  his  honors  and  avocations, 
.  to  feel  a  deep  interest  in  these  primary  fountains  of 
learning,  whose  healing  waters  are  for  the  enlightenment 
of  the  whole  people ;  and  has  repeatedly  manifested  his 
respect  and  confidence  by  using  them  for  "the  education 
of  his  children  and  his  children's  children ;  and  his  Chief 
Magistracy  of  our  Commonwealth,  wise  and  firm  in  its 
administration  of  all  our  affairs,  was  distinguished  by  two 
events,  —  the  inauguration  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
and  of  our  State  Normal  Schools,  which  are  as  honorable 


88  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 


*- 


testimonials  of  patriotic  wisdom  and  usefulness  as  any 
incumbent  has  ever  left  in  the  Chair  of  State,  and  grandly 
beneficent  in  the  effect  they  have  had  to  enlarge,  elevate, 
and  advance  that  popular  education  which  is  the  secret 
of  the  past  and  present  position,  power,  and  prosperity 
of  Massachusetts. 

Resolved^  That,  while  we  bow  in  devout  submission  to 
the  Divine  Will,  which  has  removed  from  among  us  so 
eminent  and  useful  a  citizen,  it  is  alike  a  duty,  a  pleasure, 
and  a  benefit  to  recall  with  gratitude  his  distinguished 
services,  to  cherish  the  memory  of  all  that  was  beautiful, 
useful,  honorable,  and  Christian  in  his  life  and  character, 
and  make  it  an  incentive  in  our  individual  hearts  to  a 
like  fidelity,  —  a  fidelity  that  in  us,  also,  shall  meet  the 
measure  of  our  ability  and  our  opportunities. 

The  Resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  TRUSTEES  OF  THE 
PUBLIC  LIBRARY. 


12 


TRUSTEES  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LIBRARY. 


A  special  meeting  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Public  Library  was 
held  on  the  17th  of  Jan.  1865,  at  11  o'clock,  A.  M.,  to  take  suit 
able  notice  of  the  death  of  their  President,  the  Hon.  Edward 
Everett.  The  following  resolutions  were  offered  by  George  Tick- 
nor,  Esq.,  chairman  of  the  meeting,  and  were  unanimously  adopted 
by  the  Board  :  — 

Resolved,  That,  while  the  Trustees  of  the  Public  Li 
brary,  in  common  with  all  their  fellow-citizens,  look  back, 
with  proud  gratitude,  to  the  record  of  the  eminent  ser 
vices  rendered  by  Mr.  Everett  in  trusts  and  ways  so  vari 
ous  and  so  distinct,  not  only  to  the  highest  interests  of 
our  country  and  our  Commonwealth,  but  to  the  inter 
ests  of  letters  and  religion,  and  to  the  promotion  of  all 
that  is  good,  faithful,  and  worthy  everywhere,  during  his 
long  life,  an  uncommon  portion  of  which  has  been 
marked  and  honored  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, —  we  yet 
feel  at  this  sad  moment  an  obligation  more  especially 
resting  on  this  Board  thankfully  to  acknowledge,  how 
much  is  due  to  him  from  our  own  city  as  one  of  those, 


92  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

who  earliest  and  most  earnestly,  counselled  and  promoted 
the  foundation  of  this  Public  Library,  to  whose  interests 
and  progress, —  amidst  the  many  high  and  graver  claims 
that  were  constantly  crowded  on  his  care, —  he  devoted 
himself  faithfully  from  its  first  beginnings  down  to  the 
very  day  before  his  death,  acting,  during  the  whole  of  its 
organized  existence,  with  uniform  wisdom,  gentleness, 
and  dignity,  as  its  presiding  officer. 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of 
our  late  honored  and  lamented  President,  and,  in  deference 
to  the  feeling  of  this  whole  community,  the  Trustees  direct 
the  Library  to  be  closed  during  the  day  of  his  interment, 
and  that  it  be  draped  in  mourning  for  the  thirty  days  sub 
sequent. 

Resolved,  That  the  chairman  of  this  meeting  address  to 
the  family  of  Mr.  Everett  a  certified  copy  of  these  pro 
ceedings,  expressing  to  them,  at  the  same  time,  our  heart 
felt  sympathy  in  this,  their  great  sorrow,  and  commending 
them  to  the  gracious  God  in  whom  he  always  trusted,  and 
to  the  Christian  consolations,  in  which  —  during  such 
times  of  trial  and  bereavement  as  come  to  all  men  —  he 
found  an  unfailing  support. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   MASSACHUSETTS 
LEGISLATURE. 


MASSACHUSETTS   LEGISLATURE. 


IN  THE  SENATE. 

MONDAY,  JAN.  16,  1865. 

Mr.  Went  worth,  of  Middlesex,  offered  the  following  order  :  — 
Whereas,  intelligence   has   been  received   announcing 
the  death  of  the  Hon.  Edward  Everett,  at  his  residence  in 
this  city, 

Ordered^  That  a  committee  of  five  on  the  part  of  the 
Senate,  with  such  as  the  House  may  join,  be  appointed  to 
consider  and  report  what  measures  it  may  be  proper  for 
the  Legislature  to  adopt  as  a  testimonial  of  its  gratitude 
for  the  public  services  and  respect  for  the  memory  of  the 
illustrious  dead. 

The  order  was  adopted,  and  Senators  Wentworth  of  Middlesex, 
Loud  of  Plymouth,  Parker  of  Suffolk,  Foster  of  Essex,  and  Kneil 
of  Hampden  were  appointed  as  the  Committee  on  the  part  of  the 
Senate. 

IN  THE  HOUSE. 

The  order  from  the  Senate  in  regard  to  measures  to  be  taken  in 
relation  to  the  decease  of  the  Hon.  Edward  Everett  was  concurred  in 


96  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

and  the  following  gentlemen  were  joined  to  the  Senate  committee 
on  the  subject :  Messrs.  Kimball  of  Boston,  Wells  of  Chicopee, 
Scudder  of  Dorchester,  Stone  of  Charlestown,  Hills  of  Boston, 
Stone  of  Waltham,  Gallup  of  Brookfield,  Dwelley  of  Hanover 
Warren  of  Windsor,  and  Hall  of  Dennis. 

Mr.  KIMBALL,  of  Boston,  moved  that,  out  of  respect  for  the 
memory  of  Mr.  Everett,  the  House  immediately  adjourn. 

Adjourned. 

IN  THE  SENATE. 

THURSDAY,  JANUARY  20,  1865. 

A  communication  was  received  from  His  Excellency  the  Gov 
ernor,  as  follows  :  — - 

HON.  J.  E.  FIELD,  President  of  the  Senate:  — 

SIR  :  I  perceive  that  the  Senate  will  be  in  session  at 
10  o'clock  this  morning  to  consider  and  adopt  appro 
priate  measures  in  honor  of  the  memory  of  our  late 
illustrious  fellow- citizen,  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

In  the  utmost  sympathy  with  the  Senate,  and  sharing 
its  sense  of  bereavement,  the  Executive  Department  of 
the  Commonwealth  will  cordially  unite  with  the  General 
Court  in  every  demonstration  of  affectionate  respect  for 
the  departed  which  it  may  adopt.  The  Governor  and 
Council  propose  to  attend  the  funeral  to-day  in  a  body. 
The  military  staff  of  the  Commonwealth  Headquarters 
have  been  directed  to  report  at  the  Council  Chamber 
at  11  o'clock  A.  M.,  and  an  appropriate  military  detach 
ment  is  under  orders  to  perform  the  duty  of  escorting 
the  funeral  procession,  the  Independent  Corps  of  Cadets 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   LEGISLATURE.  97 

acting  as  a  guard  of  honor  to  the  remains  of  the  de 
ceased  statesman,  whose  body  guard  they  were  in  his 
former  capacity  of  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

I  am,  sir,  with  high  respect,  your  obedient  and  hum 
ble  servant, 

JOHN  A.  ANDREW. 

Mr.  Wentworth  of  Middlesex,  from  the  committee  on  resolu 
tions  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Everett,  submitted  the 
following,  which  were  read  by  the  Clerk :  — 

Resolved.  That,  as  members  of  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachu 
setts,  we  deem  it  our  public  duty  to  express  the  pro 
found  emotions  with  which  we,  and  the  people  whom 
we  represent,  have  received  the  intelligence  of  the  death 
of  the  Hon.  Edward  Everett. 

Resolved.  That  we  mourn  with  deep  regret  the  loss 
of  a  citizen  who,  for  fifty  years,  has  been  the  pride 
and  ornament  of  the  Commonwealth ;  who  in  early  youth 
attracted  public  attention  as  a  poet  and  scholar,  and 
during  a  period  in  Which  he  was  the  active  associate 
of  three  generations  of  men  had  never  ceased  to  occupy 
it,  as  an  accomplished '  man  of  letters  and  a  finished  and 
captivating  orator ;  who  united  to  singular  gifts  of  speech 
and  action  an  equally  unusual  power  of  application  and 
habit  of  industry;  who  touched  no  subject,  however 
light,  without  leaving  upon  it  the  mark  of  conscientious 
care,  and  who  investigated  no  question,  however  grave, 
without  throwing  over  it  the  inimitable  charm  of  genius  ; 

13 


98  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWAED  EVEEETT. 

who,  having  begun  active  life  with  the  patience  and 
ripeness  of  age,  still  retained  in  age  the  grace  and 
spirit  of  youth,  and,  when  he  had  passed  the  allotted 
age  of  man,  so  completely  filled  the  public  eye  and 
satisfied  the  public  expectation,  that  had  he  no  better 
claim  for  gratitude,  his  death  would  still  be  an  irrepa 
rable  loss. 

Resolved.  That  we  recollect  with  pride  that  the  life 
of  Mr.  Everett  was  spent  in  the  public  service,  and 
that  we  cherish  in  respectful  remembrance  the  fidelity 
and  signal  success  with  which  he  filled  the  highest 
offices  of  his  native  State ;  that  he  administered  these 
great  public  trusts  as  a  personal  duty,  and  devoted  to 
all  their  details  the  same  attention  which  he  bestowed 
on  his  most  splendid  efforts ;  that  he  added  dignity  to  the 
national  councils  by  his  profound  learning  as  a  states 
man,  and  maintained  the  national  honor  abroad  by  the 
intelligence  and  wisdom  of  his  diplomacy ;  that  he  was 
never  seduced  by  public  indulgence  to  act  on  any 
measure  without  thorough  investigation,  and  during  his 
long  and  eventful  public  service,  never  failed  to  appre 
ciate  the  magnitude  and  difficulty  of  the  questions  before 
him,  and  to  give  to  them,  all  the  strength  of  his  great 
talents,  and  the  illumination  of  his  various  knowledge. 
Nor  are  we  to  forget  that  he  dignified  his  public  station 
by  private  virtues ;  by  the  profession  of  a  Christian 
faith,  and  the  practice  of  a  Christian  life. 

Resolved.  That,  while  we  thus  gratefully  recognize  the 
eminent  usefulness  and  importance  of  Mr.  Everett's 
public  life,  we  regard,  and  would  here  commemorate, 


IN  THE   MASSACHUSETTS   LEGISLATURE.  99 

as  his  highest  title  to  honor  and  gratitude  from  the 
people  of  this  Commonwealth,  the  timely  and  decisive 
service  which  he  has  rendered  during  the  last  .four  years 
to  our  common  country,  in  her  struggle  for  national  unity 
and  national  existence  ;  and  that  we  consider  the  prompt 
ness  with  which  he  embraced  the  cause  of  the  Union, 
the  distinctness  with  which  he  saw  the  vital  issues  of 
the  present  war,  the  cordial  support  which  he  gave  to 
the  Government,  the  research  and  unequalled  clearness 
of  the  productions  by  which  he  sought  to  form,  and 
did  form,  an  enlightened  public  opinion,  the  temperate 
and  luminous  papers  by  which  he  upheld  our  cause  to 
the  world,  the  confidence  which  his  presence  and  his 
speech  inspired  in  the  success  of  our  arms,  and,  more 
than  all,  the  ardent  love  of  country  which  animated  his 
spoken  and  written  words,  and  prompted  him  to  those 
grand  enterprises  of  national  charity,  of  which  he  has 
left  so  little  for  others  to  complete,  as  the  crowning 
glory  of  his  long  and  brilliant  life,  and  as  entitling 
him  to  an  imperishable  place  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States  as  an  ILLUSTRIOUS  CITIZEN. 

Resolved.  That  an  eulogy  on  his  life  and  character, 
be  pronounced  before  the  Executive  and  Legislative 
branches  of  the  government  of  the  Commonwealth,  at 
some  time  during  the  present  session. 

Resolved.  That  His  Excellency  the  Governor  be  re 
quested  to  transmit  a  copy  of  these  resolves  to  the 
family  of  Mr.  Everett. 

Resolved.  That  a  Committee,  consisting  of  the  Pres 
ident  and  ten  members  on  the  part  of  the  Senate,  and 


100  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

the  Speaker  and  twenty  members  on  the  part  of  the 
House,  be  appointed  to  attend  the  funeral  of  the 
deceased. 

Mr.  Wentworth  addressed  the  Senate  as  follows  :  — 

The  resolutions  which  have  been  read  to  the  Senate 
are  designed  to  express  the  sentiments  of  the  Legisla 
ture  upon  the  melancholy  event  they  are  intended  to 
commemorate.  It  is  peculiarly  fitting  that  we  should, 
in  an  appropriate  manner,  and  by  public  action,  call 
the  attention  of  our  fellow-citizens  to  the  loss  the  coun 
try  has  sustained  in  the  death  of  Edward  Everett. 
The  orator,  the  statesman,  the  patriot,  the  philanthro 
pist  and  Christian,  is  no  more !  For  forty  years,  with 
few  and  short  intermissions,  the  exertions  of  Mr.  Everett 
have  been  devoted  to  the  public  in  various  positions 
in  the  service  of  this,  his  native  State,  and  of  the 
nation. 

Of  the  eminent  ability  and  success  which  has  marked 
his  entire  public  career,  of  the  patriotic  efforts  which 
have  so  signally  illustrated  the  last  years  of  his  valu 
able  life,  and  of  the  philanthropic  labors  which  have 
been  so  gracefully  and  bounteously  yielded  by  him  to 
every  call  of  suffering  and  distress,  there  will  be  fitting 
occasion  elsewhere  for  others  to  speak,  —  an  occasion 
when  a  delineation  of  his  character,  life,  and  services 
will  give  to  mankind  a  splendid  example  of  the  high 
est  talent  employed  for  the  noblest  ends  ;  of  a  life  de 
voted  with  unusual  fidelity  to  the  welfare  of  the  human 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS  LEGISLATURE.  101 

race,  and  which  has  adorned  the  policy,  the  politics, 
and  the  literature  of  his  country.  I  content  myself 
with  expressing  my  entire  concurrence  with  the  Legis 
lative  action  proposed,  and  move  the  adoption  of  the 
resolutions. 

Mr.  WORCESTER  of  Essex  said :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  find  myself  constrained  to  violate 
a  resolution  which  I  had  formed,  in  coming  into  this 
body,  —  that  I  would  not  occupy  the  attention  of  the 
Senate,  except  for  a  few  moments  at  a  time,  —  per 
haps,  for  months  to  come.  But  I  owe  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  Mr.  Everett,  and  must  speak  of  him  some 
what  with  the  feelings  of  a  son.  Were  it  not  for 
this,  my  voice  would  probably  now  be  silent. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  be  a  member  of  the  College 
at  Cambridge,  when  he  returned  from  his  four  years  of 
sojourn  in  Europe,  to  enter  upon  his  duties  as  Eliot 
Professor  of  Greek  literature.  I  may  almost  say,  that 
his  lecture-room  in  the  old  Harvard  Hall  was  the  birth 
place  of  my  mind.  Sure  I  am,  that  no  one  of  all  the 
officers  of  the  College  had  such  an  awakening  power  of 
influence  upon  my  own  mind ;  and  what  is  true  of  myself, 
I  believe,  was  also  true  of  my  class  generally.  We 
were  one  of  the  five  classes  only,  if  I  remember  rightly, 
that  enjoyed  his  instructions,  in  the  senior  year. 

He  laid  out  a  programme  for  a  course  of  lectures  upon 
Greek  literature  and  the  antiquities  of  the  classic  lands, 
which,  instead  of  some  twenty-five  or  thirty  lectures, 


102  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWAKD   EVERETT. 

would  have  required  three  hundred  for  its  entire  com 
pletion.  His  manner  of  lecturing  was  colloquial  and 
exceedingly  familiar.  He  would  read  a  few  pages  from 
his  carefully  prepared  manuscripts,  and  then  turn  from 
the  written  lecture,  and  indulge  himself  in  extemporized 
excurses,  suggested  by  some  word  or  association.  In 
these  he  was  no  less  interesting  and  instructive,  than 
in  the  most  finished  parts  of  his  lectures,  as  he  read  them 
in  his  deliberate  and  earnest  manner.  Often  have  I  seen 
him  roll  up  his  papers,  and  close  the  hour,  when  he  did 
not  appear  to  have  delivered  more  than  a  third,  if  more 
than  a  sixth  part,  of  what  he  had  written  for  the  occasion. 

It  seemed  to  be  his  constant  aim  to  arouse  the  interest 
and  the  emulation  of  the  students,  in  exertions  to  qualify 
themselves  for  distinguished  usefulness.  He  has  been 
represented  as  if  he  was  not  a  man  of  warm  heart,  but 
was  characteristically  cold  and  unapproachable.  He  cer 
tainly  was  not  thus,  as  he  appeared  in  the  lecture-room, 
and  as  I  saw  him  at  other  times,  when  he  gave  a  few  of 
us  private  instructions  in  an  extra  course  of  study,  to 
which  all  were  kindly  invited. 

He  seemed  as  if  he  wished  to  break  down  those  conven 
tional  barriers,  which  were  designed  probably  to  keep  the 
students  at  a  respectful,  but  which  practically  kept  them 
at  a  disrespectful,  distance  from  the  officers.  And  it  is  no 
disparagement  to  any  of  those  with  whom  he  was  associ 
ated  in  the  instruction  of  the  College,  to  say  that  no  one  of 
them  was  more  highly  esteemed.  He  was  truly  beloved. 

It  was  most  easy  to  follow  him  as  he  lectured.  A 
second  or  third  rate  reporter  could  have  taken  down 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  LEGISLATURE.  103 

almost  every  word,  whether  he  was  reading  or  extem 
porizing.  I  took  myself  extended  notes  of  his  lectures. 
And  as  I  yesterday  looked  over  some  eighty  or  a  hundred 
pages,  I  was  surprised  on  being  reminded  of  the  great 
amount  of  labor  which  he  accomplished,  and  the  range  of 
topics  which  he  illustrated,  or  alluded  to,  as  worthy  of 
remembrance  or  research. 

The  first  time  I  saw  Mr.  Everett,  was  in  the  latter  part 
of  my  freshman  year,  — the  summer  of  1819,  —  and  when 
he  had  just  returned  from  Europe.  His  appearance  then, 
when  but  twenty-five  years  of  age,  was  not  in  the  full  and 
somewhat  portly,  bodily  form*  which  we  have  seen  in  his 
later  years.  His  countenance  was  that  of  a  hard  student, 
and  his  bearing  was  by  no  means  that  of  a  man  who  gave 
promise  of  the  length  of  days  which  he  has  been  permitted 
to  enjoy.  It  was  a  slender  and  diminutive  figure,  even, 
which  he  presented,  when  he  walked  from  University 
Hall  across  the  College  yard,  as  I  have  seen  him,  —  lean 
ing  upon  the  arm  of  his  younger  brother  John,  who,  as  he 
now  comes  before  my  memory  in  his  stalwart  form,  "  from 
his  shoulders  and  upward  was  higher."  Some  have 
thought,  that  in  native  -intellectual  endowment,  that 
brother,  who  went  down  to  an  early  grave,  had  as  much 
superiority,  as  he  had  in  bodily  presence,  over  the 
lamented  man  whose  death  we*  are  now  called  to  mourn. 

From  the  reputation  which  preceded  Mr.  Everett's  com 
ing  to  enter  upon  his  duties  as  Professor,  the  students 
had  high  expectations.  The  first  displays  which  he  made 
before  us,  were  from  the, pulpit.  But  although  he  drew 
large  audiences,  and  was  highly  extolled  and  glorified  by 


104  MEMOEIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

many,  I  do  not  think  that  he  made  any  great  impres 
sion  upon  the  under-graduates.  The  pulpit  was  not  his 
appropriate  place.  I  heartily  rejoiced  when  he  withdrew 
from  it,  and  gave  himself  so  devotedly  to  the  instruc 
tion  of  the  College  classes  ;  and  afterwards  to  the  instruc 
tion  of  the  country  and  of  the  world. 

Soon  after  his  return  from  Europe,  he  was  editor  of  the 
North  American  Review,  which  he  renewed,  by  giving  it  a 
character  and  reputation  such  as  it  never  had  before.  The 
students  were  much  interested  in  the  articles  which  he 
wrote  for  it,  and  which  they  thought  could  be  easily  iden 
tified.  The  style  of  those  articles  had  a  great  effect,  in 
stimulating  them  to  cultivate  a  high  order  of  literary  com 
position.  We  were  specially  interested  in  the  articles, 
which  vindicated  our  institutions  and  character  against  the 
mendacious  reports  of  British  travellers  in  America,  and 
the  savage  assaults  of  the  Edinburgh  and  London  Quar 
terly  Ee views.  At  this  time  there  was  much  written  in 
the  spirit  of  Sydney  Smith's  sneering  interrogatory, — 
"  Who  reads  an  American  book  ?  " 

In  refuting  the  statements  and  repelling  the  assaults  of 
British  travellers  and  reviewers,  Mr.  Everett  came  forth 
with  a  manliness  which  he  had  not  before  displayed.  His 
compositions  had  often  seemed  to  belong  rather  to  the  fem 
inine  than  to  the  masculine  gender.  While  he  showed  that 
he  had  the  same  delicacy  of  taste  and  kindliness  of  tem 
per,  which  had  been  so  admirably  exhibited  by  Washing 
ton  Irving,  in  the  essays  of  the  Sketch  Book,  which 
portrayed  and  defended  our  national  character,  —  he  also 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  LEGISLATURE.  105 

showed  a  vigor  and  masterly  strength,  which,  perhaps, 
he  owed  in  part  at  least,  to  his  intimacy  with  Webster, 
whom  he  so  greatly  admired,  and  with  whom  he  so  in 
tensely  sympathized.  In  those  vindications  of  our  country 
which  appeared  in  the  North  American ,  from  the  pen  of 
Mr.  Everett,  you  may  see  the  germs  or  the  elements  of  the 
same  patriotism  which  has  so  nobly  distinguished  the 
efforts  of  these  last  years  of  his  life. 

He  could  say  very  hard  things  in  very  mild  words. 
He  could  take  a  man's  head  off,  by  a  feather,  as  well 
as  by  any  more  potent  instrument.  An  example  of  his 
manner  now  occurs  to  me.  He  was  commenting  upon 
some  flagrant  statements.  "  This,"  said  he,  "  is  a  spe 
cies  of  fiction  in  which  gentlemen  of  veracity  are  not 
accustomed  to  indulge." 

One  or  two  articles  he  wrote  on  the  Missouri  ques 
tion,  with  signal  ability.  One  of  these,  I  think  was  in 
the  early  part  pf  1820,  when  he  reviewed  the  history 
of  slavery  in  our  country,  —  referring  to  the  principles  and 
sentiments  of  the  founders  of  the  republic,  and  earnestly 
imploring,  that  the  area  of  the  "peculiar  institution" 
should  be  no  farther  extended.  These  views  he  seems 
to  have  modified,  after  he  became  a  member  of  Con 
gress  :  perhaps  more  seemingly ',  than  in  reality,  yet  afford 
ing  too  much  occasion  for  the  terrible  rebuke  of  John 
Randolph,  who,  as  some  will  remember,  gave  him  to 
understand,  that  slave-holder  as  he  was  himself,  he  had 
little  respect  for  the  heart  or  the  head  of  any  man,  from 

H 


106  MEMOEIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

the  North,  who  would   stand  up    there  to  apologize  for 
Southern  slavery. 

In  August,  1824,  Mr.  Everett  delivered  an  oration 
before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  which  was  received 
with  the  highest  applause.  General  Lafayette  had  just 
arrived,  on  a  visit  to  the  United  States,  and  his  coming 
stirred  up  and  called  forth  all  the  patriotic  feeling, 
which  could  be  moved  by  the  remembrances  and  asso 
ciations  of  the  revolutionary  war.  His  presence  in  the 
assembly  at  Cambridge  added  greatly  to  the  interest  of 
that  27th  day  of  August,  —  a  day  most  memorable  in 
Mr.  Everett's  public  life. 

The  subject  of  the  oration,  as  then  stated  by  the 
orator,  was  "  The  peculiar  motives  to  intellectual  exertion 
in  America."  In  a  revised  edition  of  Mr.  Everett's  works, 
the  oration  appears  tinder  the  title  of  "  Circumstances  favor 
able  to  the  progress  of  literature  in  the  United  States."  In 
the  treatment  of  this  subject,  he  displayed  a  wealth  of 
learning  and  a  wealth  of  language,  which  perfectly  amazed 
his  auditory,  and  far  exceeded  all  the  most  sanguine  expec 
tations  of  his  greatest  admirers.  It  would  be  utterly  impos 
sible  to  describe  the  effect  produced  as  with  his  graphic  and 
thrilling  power,  as  from  an  inspiration  he  depicted,  "  the 
theatre  upon  which  the  intellect  of  America  was  to  ap 
pear;"  "the  motives  to  its  exertion;"  "the  mass  to  be 
influenced  by  its  efforts  ; "  "  the  crowd  to  witness  its  ener 
gies;"  and  "the  glory  to  crown  its  success."  And  when  in 
his  peroration  he  addressed  Lafayette,  the  enthusiasm  of 
admiration  knew  no  bounds.  The  closing  words  of  "  wel- 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  LEGISLATURE.  107 

come"  "  WELCOME,"  were  received  with  a  kind  of  rapture  and 
the  wildest  excitement,  that  can  well  be  imagined.  Never 
before,  and  I  believe,  never  since,  was  such  a  scene 
witnessed  at  Cambridge.  And  I  much  incline  to  the 
opinion,  that  for  all  in  all,  considering  the  occasion  and 
the  circumstances,  not  one  of  all  Mr.  Everett's  greatest 
efforts,  throughout  his  whole  subsequent  career,  has  sur 
passed  that  memorable  Phi  Beta  oration  of  August  27, 
1824. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year,  1824,  the  young  men  of 
Middlesex  nominated  Mr.  Everett  for  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  in  Congress.  The  course  which  he  pursued 
in  his  ten  years  as  Representative  in  Washington,  —  his 
services  in  Europe,  —  his  administration  as  Governor  of 
our  State,  —  his  presidency  at  Cambridge,  —  and  even 
the  wonderful  eiforts  of  the  last  glorious  period  of  his 
life, — it  is  not  now  the  time,  nor  is  this  the  place,  to 
review  and  describe.  But  whatever  may  have  been 
thought  of  him,  at  certain  times,  in  respect  to  his  politi 
cal  action,  —  I  believe  that  no  man  could  ever  say  with 
greater  sincerity  and  propriety,  that  "through  good  report 
and  through  evil  report,  he  had  truly  loved  his  whole 
Country." 

The  bereavement  which  we  mourn,  is  a  bereavement 
of  all  tbe  loyal  people  in  our  land.  We  are  all  mourn 
ers  to-day,  as  if  the  affliction  were  in  our  own  family 
circle.  Although  the  beloved  man  had  lived  so  long, 
and  had  accomplished  so  much  by  his  integrity  and  learn 
ing,  his  patriotism  and  philanthropy,  —  and  although. 


108  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

"  gathered  to  his  fathers,"  "  as  a  shock  of  com  cometh 
in  his  season,"  his  death  appears  to  us  untimely.  Our  duty 
is  to  bow  with  entire  submission  to  God's  Sovereign  will. 
"  EVEN  so,  FATHER,  FOR  so  IT  SEEMETH  GOOD  IN  THY  SIGHT." 

Little  did  we  think,  when  we  so  lately  saw  him,  that 
he  was  so  soon  to  fall  asleep.  But  if  it  had  been  kno^yn, 
that  his  days  were  so  near  the  end,  and  there  had  been  the 
opportunity,  —  I  think  that  I  should  have  ventured  to 
congratulate  him,  that  God  had  spared  him  so  long; 
and  that  for  himself,  for  our  land,  and  for  the  world,  he 
was  not  taken  from  us  four  years  since. 

Grateful  should  we  be  that  he  so  early  gave  himself 
to  the  pure,  the  beautiful,  and  the  just.  As  we  gather 
him  to  his  burial,  let  us  all  be  admonished  of  our  personal 
duty  to  our  Country  and  to  God.  I  would  that  I  could 
speak  to  all  the  young  men  of  the  land.  I  would  exhort 
them  to  study  those  volumes  which  are  the  memorial 
of  his  erudition,  his  eloquence,  and  his  beneficence. 

We  cannot  doubt  what  he  would  say  to  them,  and  to 
all  of  us.  And  here  comes  to  my  mind,  at  this  moment, 
the  words  which  he  uttered  when  approaching  the  end 
of  that  oration  on  the  27th  of  August,  1824.  —  "If  I 
err  in  this  happy  vision  of  my  Country's  fortunes,  I 
thank  God  for  an  error  so  animating.  If  this  be  false, 
may  I  never  know  the  truth.  Never  may  you,  my  friends, 
be  under  any  other  feeling  than  that  a  great  and  growing, 
an  immeasurably  expanding  country  is  calling  upon  you 
for  your  best  services. 

•Mr.  President,  there  is  a  spot  in  front  of  this  edifice, — 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS  LEGISLATURE.  109 

on  the  other  side  of  that  which  is  occupied  by  the  statue 
of  the  great  defender  of  the  Constitution.  Whose  statue 
shall  have  that  vacant  place  ?  Whose  can  occupy  it  so 
worthily  as  that  of  him  whose  sudden  departure  we  all 
so  deeply  deplore?  But  however  it  may  be,  it  is  our 
"  joy  of  grief,"  that  his  monument  is  everywhere  in  the 
land ;  his  renown  is  in  all  lands ;  and  for  ages  to  come, 
his  Country  "  redeemed,  regenerated,  disenthralled,"  shall 
cherish  among  her  choicest  treasures,  the  transcendent 
name  of  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

Mr.  Chadbourne  of  Berkshire  said  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  It  is  eminently  proper  that  we  should 
turn  aside  from  the  ordinary  duties  of  this  chamber  to 
pay  our  brief  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  a 
great  man.  Edward  Everett  wras  a  great  man  among 
great  men.  It  was  his  lot,  sir,  to  live  and  walk  with 
a  race  of  intellectual  giants.  And  if  we  consider  the 
rare  combination  of  native  power  with  vast  acquirements, 
he  was  hardly  surpassed  by  any  man  of  his  time.  He 
was  a  scholar,  an  orator,  a  statesman,  and  a  patriot. 
How  perfect  and  beautiful  was  his  life,  how  transcen- 
dently  beautiful  its  close !  No  broken  shaft  can  be  its 
symbol.  It  was  like  the  lofty  marble  column,  without 
spot  or  blemish,  its  flutings  perfect,  its  capital  entire. 

I  shall  ever  consider  it  among  the  fortunate  events  in 
my  life,  sir,  that  I  heard  his  last  words  in  Eaneuil  Hall. 
There  his  great  heart  gushed  forth,  breaking  down  the 
forms  of  elaborate  and  studied  oratory  so  commonly  at- 


110  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD  EVERETT. 

tributed  to  him.  With  what  loving  enthusiasm  was  he 
greeted  by  the  hundreds  who  had  so  often  hung  upon 
his  lips.  And  how  did  his  words  give  us  courage  for 
the  conflict  and  charity  towards  the  returning  prod 
igals.  He  did  not  live  to  see  the  Union  restored,  but, 
as  has  been  well  said,  he  saw  it  by  the  eye  of  faith. 
Those  who  heard  his  last  speech  will  never  forget  his 
eloquent  words  respecting  the  people  of  Savannah. 
"  They  do  not  know  as  we  do,"  said  he,  "  that  the 
Savannah  River  shall  sooner  reverse  its  course  and  roll 
its  flood  of  waters  back  to  the  mountains  than  the  stars 
and  stripes  be  again  replaced  by  the  flag  of  the  Rebel 
lion."  His  eloquent  words  remain,  but  his  eloquent  lips 
are  closed  forever  in  death.  He  has  completed  his 
warfare.  We  may  place  -his  statue  in  the  vacant  place 
in  front  of  the  capitol,  but  his  spear  leans  against  the 
wall,  and  who  is  there  left,  mighty  enough  to  wield  it? 

But  how  little,  sir,  of  such  a  man  can  die  !  His  death 
seems  to  me  like  one  of  those  splendid  summer  nights 
in  the  far  north,  where  the  sun  indeed  sinks  beneath 
the  horizon,  but  where  his  midnight  light  curtains  the 
heavens  with  purple  and  gold,  more  gorgeous  and  beau 
tiful  than  his  noonday  glory. 

His  name  will  live  forever.  Henceforth,  they  who 
make  pilgrimages  to  Mount  Vernon  will  couple  the 
name  of  Everett  with  the  name  of  Washington.  He 
will  be  remembered  as  the  proud  yjroduct  of  republican 
institutions,  as  the  orator  who  launched  his  thunders 
against  the  Catilines  of  our  day,  and  as  the  patriot  who 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   LEGISLATURE.  1 1 1 

ever  preferred  his  country  to  party,  and  never  despaired 
of  the  republic. 

The  resolutions  were  adopted. 

Senators  Wentworth  of  Middlesex,  Loud  of  Plymouth,  Codman 
of  Suffolk,  Parker  of  Suffolk,  Stoddard  of  Worcester,  Frost  of 
Norfolk,  Foster  of  Essex,  Kneil  of  Hampden,  Ide  of  Bristol,  and 
Parsons  of  Franklin  were  appointed  a  Committee  on  the  part  of 
the  Senate  to  attend  the  funeral. 

Adjourned. 

IN  THE  HOUSE. 

A  communication  was  received  from  His  Excellency,  the  Gov 
ernor,  stating  that  the  Executive  Department  would  unite  with 
the  General  Court  in  any  demonstration  of  respect  to  the  mem 
ory  of  Mr.  Everett,  which  they  might  adopt. 

The  resolutions  of  the  joint  special  Committee,  in  relation  to 
Mr.  Everett,  were  received  from  the  Senate,  and  read  by  the 
clerk. 

Mr.  Wells  of  Chicopee  said :  — 

MR.  SPEAKER  :  The  brief  time  that  remains  before  we 
are  to  proceed  to  join  in  the  funeral  ceremonies,  as 
well  as  the  fact  that  our  action  contemplates  a  formal 
eulogy  at  some  future  day,  forbids  that  I  should  enter 
upon  any  extended  discussion  of  the  life  or  character  of 
Mr.  Everett.  Were  it  otherwise,  I  should  not  venture, 
with  my  limited  powers,  and  limited  knowledge  of  the 
subject,  to  undertake  its  delineation.  But  I  am  sure  it 
would  not  comport  with  the  feelings  of  this  house, — 


112  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

it  would  not  comport  with  the  propriety  of  the  occasion, 
that  the  Resolves  should  pass  to  their  adoption  by  a 
mere  formal  vote.  There  is  one  consideration  in  the 
life  of  Mr.  Everett,  which  seems  especially  to  force 
itself  upon  our  attention.  Although  for  so  many  years 
in  public  life  ;  —  elected  to  Congress  forty  years  ago  ;  — 
having  filled  the  office  of  Governor  of  this  Common 
wealth  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  since ;  —  ap 
pointed  in  1841  as  our  Minister  to  the  Court  of  St. 
James; — in  1852  succeeding  Mr.  Webster  as  Secretary 
of  State  of  the  United  States  ;  —  and  having  filled  all  these 
and  other  prominent  positions  of  public  trust  with  dis 
tinguished  ability,  and  honor  to  himself  as  well  as  to 
the  country;  —  he  has  nevertheless  rounded  out  his  life, 
and  placed  upon  its  record  an  enduring  crown  of  sur 
passing  excellence,  by  the  display  of  that  patriotism, 
and  the  performance  of  those  duties  to  the  country, 
which  come  within  the  province  of  the  private  citizen. 
Great  and  honored  as  he  was  among  men  when  exer 
cising  the  influence  which  attends  the  possession  of  high 
official  position,  he  was  greater,  more  honored,  more 
powerful  in  the  influence  he  was  able  to  exert  for  the 
good  of  his  country,  in  his  last  capacity  as  a  private 
citizen. 

He  thus  nobly  illustrated  the  true  spirit  of  the  insti 
tutions  of  our  country;  —  where  the  private  citizen  is 
the  real  potentate,  —  above  all  office,  and  not  dependent 
upon  it  for  the  possession  of  his  true  dignity  and  influ 
ence.  In  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett  the  country  has 


IN    THE   MASSACHUSETTS   LEGISLATURE.  1]3 

indeed  suffered  a  great  loss.  And  yet  his  life  is  not 
lost  to  the  nation.  It  is  fortunate  for  us,  —  fortunate 
in  view  of  that  immortality  which  is  said  to  be  possi 
ble  to  a  nation,  that  its  great  men  do  not  die.  It  is 
not  in  the  power  of  death  to  tear  away  the  life  of  such 
men  from  the  life  of  the  Nation.  Their  acts,  their 
example,  their  written  and  spoken  words,  their  influ 
ence  upon  the  passing  events  of  their  time,  —  all  that 
which  is  the  expression  of  their  lives  is  wrought 
into  the  public  life,  —  woven  as  it  were  into  the  web 
of  the  history  of  the  country.  And  although  they  may 
be  withdrawn  from  our  mortal  vision,  all  that  which 
was  great  in  them,  all  which  connects  itself  with  the 
public  life,  remains  forever.  Passing  time  will  remove 
whatever  of  cloud  may  be  thrown  upon  the  character 
by  the  prejudice  or  passion  of  to-day,  and  as  we  look 
back  from  some  future  period,  we  shall  recognize,  more 
fully,  all  that  is  great  and  good  in  such  a  life,  and 
cherish  it  as  a  part  of  the  national  life  and  history. 

Mr.  Scudder  of  Dorchester  said  that  this  was  not  the  time 
for  an  extended  eulogy;  the  subject  did  not  demand,  nor  the 
occasion  require  it.  The  very  air  was  full  of  the  praises  of  the 
illustrious  dead,  mingled  with  sighs  and  lamentation  at  his  loss. 
He  felt  justified  in  saying,  that  within  the  last  half  century  no 
man  had  walked  among  us  who  had  so  completely  the  char 
acteristics  of  a  truly  great  man,  or  whose  life  and  character 
would  so  adorn  the  pages  of  our  history.  More  than  sixty 
years  of  the  threescore  and  ten  of  his  life  are  a  history  famil 
iar  to  us  all.  The  fame  of  his  extraordinary  promise  as  a  boy 
still  lingered  in  his  native  town  of  Dorchester, — a  promise  so 
15 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 


wonderfully  fulfilled  in  his  after  career  as  preacher,  professor,  sen 
ator,  diplomate,  governor,  college  president,  and  cabinet  minister. 
Certainly  Edward  Everett  embodied  in  himself  all  the  virtues  and 
excellences  which  are  the  components  of  greatness. 

The  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted,  the  members  of 
the  House  rising  in  their  places. 

The  following  gentlemen  were  appointed  by  the  Speaker  on 
the  Committee  of  the  House  to  attend  Mr.  Everett's  funeral  :  - 

Messrs.  Kimball  of  Boston,  Scudder  of  Dorchester,  Stone  of 
Charlestown,  Hills  of  Boston,  Stone  of  Waltham,  Gallup  of 
Brookfield,  Dwelley  of  Hanover,  Warren  of  Windsor,  Hall  of 
Dennis,  Holden  of  Salem,  Bartlett  of  Greenfield,  Lovering  of 
Taunton,  Shortle  of  Provincetown,  Osborne  of  Edgartown, 
Mitchell  of  Nantucket,  Stone  of  Lowell,  Winchester  of  Spring 
field,  Mudge  of  Petersham,  Stevens  of  Newburyport,  and  Dudley 
of  Northampton. 

Adjourned. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE. 


A  SPECIAL  meeting  of  the  Government  of  the  Board  of  Trade  was 
held  on  Tuesday,  January  17,  at  noon,  to  consider  what  meas 
ures  should  be  adopted  in  relation  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett. 
The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  the  President,  Hon.  George 
C.  Richardson,  who  briefly  stated  its  objects.  Edward  S.  Tobey, 
Esq.  then  addressed  the  meeting  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  BOARD  OF 
TRADE  :  It  is  but  recently  that  this  Board  has  had  occa 
sion  to  perform  the  solemn  office  of  a  public  expression 
of  its  sense  of  the  personal  worth  and  eminent  character 
of  a  distinguished  American  merchant,  whose  death  de 
prived  the  commercial  world  of  one  of  its  most  promi 
nent  and  honored  representatives.  We  are  now  sum 
moned  to  this  place,  to  bear  our  highest  tribute  of  re 
spect  for  the  character  and  worth  of  our  preeminent  and 
revered  fellow-countryman,  Edward  Everett,  whose  sud 
den  departure  has  thrown  the  pall  of  sadness  over  our 
land. 

Although  not  directly  connected  with  the  commercial 
history    of   this    community,  Mr.  Everett  has,  in   former 


118  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD    EVERETT. 

years,  as  the  able  minister  of  the  United  States  in  Great 
Britain,  rendered  signal  service  to  the  commerce  of  this 
country,  especially  in  giving  his  valuable  influence  in  the 
adjustment  of  questions  in  controversy  as  to  the  rights  of 
American  Fishermen. 

At  an  earlier  date,  his  series  of  letters  on  the  subject 
of  our  Colonial  trade,  doubtless  had  no  inconsiderable  influ 
ence  in  forming  an  intelligent  public  opinion  on  the  com 
mercial  questions  involved.  Notwithstanding  the  grave 
and  protracted  controversy  in  reference  to  the  Northeast 
ern  boundary,  the  Oregon  question,  and  other  kindred 
topics,  which  at  one  time  threatened  the  peace  of  this 
country  and  of  England  was  ultimately  transferred  to 
Washington,  through  the  arrangement  of  a  special  am 
bassador-  from  England,  it  is  not  doubted  that  Mr. 
Everett's  previous  discussions  of  those  questions  with 
the  British  Government  largely  contributed  to  prepare 
the  way  for  the  amicable  settlement,  which  was  finally 
attained  by  the  commissioners  of  both  governments. 

His  appointment  by  the  government  in  1843,  on  a 
mission  to  China,  with  a  view  to  establish  improved 
commercial  relations  with  that  country  (an  appointment 
which  he  felt  constrained  to  decline),  shows  the  estima 
tion  in  which  his  ability  on  commercial  questions  was 
held. 

But,  Mr.  President,  it  is  not  by  reason  of  any  relations 
to  the  commerce  of  the  country  which  Mr.  Everett  sus 
tained,  that  we  are  now  convened  to  do  appropriate  honor 
to  his  memory.  Our  country  mourns  the  loss  of  one  of 
her  ablest  and  most  devoted  statesmen ;  and  one  of  Mas- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE.       119 

sachusetts'  gifted  sons,  one  of  the  great  constellation  of 
brilliant  statesmen,  whose  lives  during  the  last  half  cen 
tury  have  adorned  and  illuminated  the  pages  of  our 
country's  history,  has  been  withdrawn  from  these  earthly 
scenes. 

This  is,  therefore,  no  ordinary  occasion.  Generally  we 
may  well  be  guarded  against  the  use  of  words  of  fulsome 
eulogy,  which  too  indiscriminately  uttered,  may  alike  do 
injury  to  the  living  and  injustice  to  the  dead. 

But  when  one  of  such  rare  combination  of  virtues  and 
excellences  of  character  as  was  possessed  by  Mr.  Everett 
passes  from  earth,  we  may  safely  commend  his  exem 
plary  public  and  private  life  to  the  emulation  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  in  no  measured  terms. 

I,  therefore,  Mr.  President,  regard  it  both  an  honor 
and  a  privilege,  cordially  to  unite  with  this  Board  in  the 
present  appropriate  demonstrations  of  respect  for  the 
character  of  our  deceased  fellow-citizen. 

Long  will  the  tones  of  his  matchless  eloquence  be 
treasured  in  memory,  as  with  all  the  fervor  of  a  pure, 
devoted  patriotism  he  sought  to  rally  the  people  to  the 
standard  of  his  country,  and  in  support  of  its  lawfully 
constituted  government  in  its  struggle  with  treason  ;  or 
in  his  last  pathetic  appeal  to  the  sympathies  of  our  citi- 
jzens  in  behalf  of  the  suffering  poor  in  Savannah. 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to  indulge 
the  promptings  of  my  own  heart  in  more  extended  re 
marks,  aware,  as  I  am,  that  there  are  others  present 
who,  I  am  sure,  desire  to  give  expression  to  their 
hearty  approval  of  these  proceedings.  I  have  the 


120  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

honor    to    submit    the    following    resolutions    for   your 
consideration  :  — 

Resolved.  That  this  Board  would  reverently  acknowl 
edge  the  hand  of  Divine  Providence  in  the  sudden  de 
parture  from  this  life  of  our  deeply  lamented  fellow- 
citizen,  Edward  Everett,  whose  varied  public  services  and 
high  attainments  have  been  so  preeminent  as  to  make  his 
character  the  common  property  of  the  American  people. 

Resolved.  That  in  common  with  our  fellow-countrymen, 
we  share  in  the  general  sorrtnv  which  now  oppresses  the 
heart  of  this  nation,  for  the  irreparable  loss  of  one  whose 
life  has  adorned  the  brightest  page  of  its  history,  and 
whose  death  has  deprived  the  country  of  the  wise  counsel 
and  influence  dT  one  of  her  noblest  sons. 

Resolved.  IThat,  while  this  Board  cannot  be  unmindful 
of  the  eminent  services  rendered  by  Mr.  Everett  as  the 
representative  of  his  country  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  in 
his  participation  in  the  adjustment  of  international  ques 
tions  of  great  importance  to  the  commercial  interests  of 
the  United  States,  we  regard  it  as  a  special  privilege,  not 
less  than  a  solemn  and  sacred  duty,  on  this  sad  occasion, 
to  express  our  appreciation  of  his  patriotism,  his  exalted 
and  comprehensive  statesmanship,  and  his  moral  worth, 
which,  with  his  unsurpassed  eloquence,  have  added  lustre 
to  the  American  name  and  character  throughout  the 
world,  and  will  enshrine  his  memory  in  the  hearts  of  a 
grateful  nation. 

Resolved.  That  we  offer  to  his  afflicted  relatives  and 
friends  our  sympathy  in  their  bereavement,  which  has 
suddenly  deprived  them  of  the  society  of  one  whose  affec- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE.       121 

tionate  intercourse  and  genial  friendship  they  have  been 
permitted  so  long  to  enjoy. 

The  resolutions  were  seconded  by  James  M.  Beebe,  Esq.,  in  the 
following  remarks  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  In  rising  to  "second  the  resolutions  sub 
mitted,  I  shall  but  give  utterance  to  feelings  which  fill 
the  hearts  of  all  present. 

It  has  not  been  customary  for  this  Association,  a  body 
so  largely  composed  of  merchants  and  business  men,  to 
publicly  recognize  the  departure  of  those,  however  emi 
nent  or  worthy,  whose  career  and  pursuits  in  life  have 
been  in  a  different  sphere  ;  but  in  the  sad  event  which 
has  called  us  together  to-day,  no  precedent  is  needed  for 
our  guidance  and  action. 

An  occasion  so  fitting  and  proper  for  the  full  and  ear 
nest  expression  of  the  feelings  of  this  Board,  has  perhaps 
never  before  occurred  since  our  organization ;  and  we  but 
honor  ourselves  in  paying  the  highest  tributes  to  the  ex 
alted  worth  and  pre-eminent  talents  of  our  fellow-citizen, 
whose  sudden  departure  from  us  has  caused  universal 
sorrow. 

Mr.  Everett  will  be  sadly  missed  in  our  own  commu 
nity,  and  the  place  vacated  by  his  death  cannot  easily  be 
filled.  Always  accessible,  and  ever  ready  on  all  proper 
occasions  claiming  his  aid  and  co-operation,  to  render 
cheerful  service  in  the  furtherance  of  every  good  cause, 
the  inexhaustible  resources  of  his  well-stored  mind,  and 
his  unsurpassed  eloquence  were  constantly  sought. 

His    enlightened    and    comprehensive    patriotism,    his 

16 


122  MEMORIAL    OF    EDWARD   EVERETT. 

noble  and  untiring  efforts  in  behalf  of  his  country  and 
her  imperilled  institutions,  so  dear  to  him,  have  enshrined 
his  memory  in  the  heart  of  the  nation,  which  will  never 
forget  the  debt  of  gratitude  it  owes. 

Little  more  can  be  expected,  in  our  meeting  to-day, 
than  a  brief  recurrence  to  the  excellence  of  character 
and  efficient  services  of  the  departed.  A  bright  example 
is  afforded  by  his  life,  to  stimulate  and  encourage  zeal  and 
fidelity  in  every  good  work. 

Eobert  B.  Forbes,  Esq.,  then  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  In  offering  my  cordial 
support  to  the  resolutions,  my  first  sensation  is  one  of 
regret  that  I  cannot  be  endowed  with  a  portion  of  the 
eloquence  due  to  the  occasion.  If  the  feelings  of  my 
heart  could  be  uttered  by  my  lips,  I  might  do  justice  to 
the  subject. 

My  relations  with  Mr.  Everett,  though  never  very  inti 
mate,  have  been  of  the  most  'friendly  character  and  long 
standing.  To  no  individual  in  this  community  have  I 
been  accustomed  to  look  up  with  more  reverence,  both 
on  account  of  his  public  works  and  his  private  character. 
While  we  sincerely  mourn  his  departure,  we  cannot  but 
rejoice  that  he  was  spared  so  long,  and  that  he  has  gone 
to  meet  his  reward,  unimpaired  by  lingering  illness,  and 
in  the  fulness  of  his  glorious  career. 

Who  is  there  in  this  community  or  in  the  whole  coun 
try,  who  has  not  been  inspired  to  deeds  of  patriotism 
or  charity  by  his  brilliant  example  and  unsurpassed  elo 
quence,  —  who  that  could  withstand  his  convincing  argu- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE.       123 

ments,  or  fail  to  applaud  the  grace  of  his  unequalled 
style  ?  None,  sir,  but  those  who  have  no  minds  to  under 
stand  or  no  hearts  to  feel  his  power. 

There  are  but  two  things  to  regret  in  Mr.  Everett's 
death :  first,  that  we  have  no  one  to  fill  his  place,  and 
next,  that  he  could  not  have  been  spared  long  enough  to 
see  —  what  he  has  done  so  much  to  bring  about  —  the 
restoration  of  our  glorious  Union.  No  man  living  has 
done  more  towards  this  end  than  Edward  Everett ;  and 
few  men,  since  the  immortal  Washington,  whose  lives 
and  writings  will  do  more,  in  the  future,  to  preserve  its 
integrity  when  that  happy  day  shall  come. 

Mr.  President,  I  heartily  concur  in  the  language  and 
in  the  spirit  of  the  resolutions,  and  in  all  that  has  been 
said  by  the  gentleman  who  has  seconded  them. 

Hon.  Joseph  M.  Wightman  also  addressed  the  Board  upon  the 
adoption  of  the  resolutions,  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  desire  to  mingle  my  feelings  of  deep 
sympathy  with  the  Board  on  this  occasion,  and  to  express 
my  hearty  concurrence  in  the  resolutions,  and  the  appro 
priate  remarks  which  have  been  made  in  reference  to  the 
death  of  Mr.  Everett. 

In  the  various  public  positions  with  which  I  have  been 
honored  by  my  fellow-citizens,  I  have  been  brought  into 
frequent  intimate  relations  with  Mr.  Everett,  and  my  con 
nection,  both  private  and  official,  with  him,  has  always 
been  characterized  by  a  gentle  courtesy,  a  kindly  interest, 
and  a  cordial  co-operation,  that  has  entitled  him  to  my 
warmest  feelings  of  gratitude  while  living,  and  to  my 


124  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

heartfelt  sorrow  and  regret  at  his  loss.  But  although  the 
eloquent  voice  is  hushed  forever,  and  the  trusty  counsellor 
and  friend  has  departed,  we  feel  assured  that  he  has  only 
left  us  to  repose  in  peace  and  happiness  in  the  bosom  of 
his  God. 

The  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Wightman,  it  was  voted  that  the  resolutions 
and  the  action  of  the  Board  in  relation  thereto  be  communicated 
to  the  family  of  the  deceased. 

Lorenzo  Sabine,  Secretary  of  the  Board,  offered  a  resolution 
that  the  rooms  of  the  Board  be  draped  in  mourning  for  thirty  days. 

In  moving  its  adoption,  Mr.  Sabine  said  that  he,  probably,  was 
the  only  person  now  living  who  could  do  Mr.  Everett  full  justice 
in  a  single  particular,  namely,  while  the  departed  statesman  was 
negotiating  the  Reciprocity  Treaty,  as  Secretary  of  State  ;  and  that, 
refraining  on  the  present  occasion,  he  should  state  the  facts  within 
his  personal  knowledge,  at  another  time  and  in  another  way. 

The  resolution  was  adopted  with  an  amendment  recommending 
a  similar  demonstration  in  the  public  room  of  the  Merchants'  Ex 
change. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned. 


PROCEEDINGS 


MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 


I/ 


PROCEEDINGS  OE  THE  MASSACHUSETTS 
HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


A  SPECIAL  Meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  was 
held  in  the  Dowse  Library  on  Monday  evening,  Jan.  30,  to  com 
memorate  their  late  illustrious  associate,  Edward  Everett.  The 
attendance  was  very  large. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  at  7J  o'clock  by  the  President, 
the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  who  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY: 

The  occasion  of  this  meeting  is  but  too  well  known  to 
you  all.  None  of  us  were  strangers  to  the  grief  which 
pervaded  this  community  on  the  recent  announcement  of 
the  death  of  Edward  Everett.  Not  a  few  of  us  have  had 
the  privilege  of  uniting  with  the  public  authorities,  who 
hastened  to  assume  the  whole  charge  of  his  funeral,  in 
paying  the  last  tribute  to  Jiis  honored  remains.  And 
more  than  one  of  us  have  already  had  an  opportunity  of 
giving  some  feeble  expression  to  our  sense  of  the  loss 
which  has  been  sustained  by  our  city,  our  Common 
wealth,  and  our  whole  country. 

But  we  are  here  this  evening  to  take  up  the  theme 
again  somewhat  more  deliberately,  as  a  Society  of  which 


128  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

he  was  so  long  one  of  the  most  valuable,  as  well  as  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  members.  We  are  here  not 
merely  to  unite  in  lamenting  the  close  of  a  career  which 
has  been  crowded  with  so  many  good  words  and  good 
works  for  the  community  and  the  country  at  large,  but 
to  give  utterance  to  our  own  particular  sorrow  for  the 
breach  which  has  been  made  in  our  own  cherished  circle. 

Mr.  Everett  was  elected  a  member  of  this  Society  on 
the  27th  of  April,  1820,  when  he  was  but  twenty-six 
years  of  age ;  and,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  his  name 
stood  second  in  order  of  seniority  on  the  roll  of  our 
resident  members.  I  need  not  attempt  to  say  to  you  how 
much  we  have  prized  his  companionship,  how  often  we 
have  profited  of  his  counsels,  or  how  deeply  we  have  been 
indebted  to  him  for  substantial  services  which  no  one 
else  could  have  rendered  so  well. 

His  earliest  considerable  effort  in  our  behalf  was  a  lec 
ture  delivered  before  us  on  the  31st  of  October,  1833.  It 
was  entitled  "  Anecdotes  of  Early  Local  History,"  and  will 
be  found  in  the  second  volume  of  his  collected  works,  — 
noAV  lying  upon  our  table,  —  with  an  extended  note  or 
appendix  containing  many  interesting  details  concerning 
the  Society,  its  objects  and  its  members.  But  it  is  only 
within  the  last  nine  or  ten  years,  and  since  his  public  life  — 
so  far  as  office  is  necessary  to  constitute  public  life  —  was 
brought  to  a  close,  that  he  has  been  in  the  way  of  taking 
an  active  part  in  our  proceedings.  No  one  can  enter  the 
room  in  which  we  are  gathered  without  remembering  how 
frequently,  during  that  period,  his  voice  has  been  heard 
among  us  in  rendering  such  honors  to  others,  as  now, 


PROCEEDINGS    OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  129 

alas,  we  are  so  unexpectedly  called  to  pay  to  himself.  No 
one  can  forget  his  admirable  tributes  to  the  beloved  Pres- 
cott,  to  the  excellent  Nathan  Hale,  to  the  venerated 
Quincy,  among  our  immediate  associates;  —  to  Daniel  D. 
Barnard  of  Albany  and  Henry  D.  Gilpin  of  Philadelphia, 
to  Washington  Irving,  to  Hallam,  to  Humboldt,  to  Mac- 
aulay,  among  our  domestic  and  foreign  honorary  members. 
Still  less  will  any  one  be  likely  to  forget  the  noble 
eulogy  which  he  pronounced,  at  our  request,  on  the  9th 
of  December,  1858,  upon  that  remarkable  self-made  man 
whom  we  have  ever  delighted  to  honor  as .  our  largest 
benefactor,  and  in  whose  pictured  presence  we  are  at  this 
moment  assembled.  Often  as  I  have  listened  to  our  la 
mented  friend,  since  the  year  1824,  —  when  I  followed 
him  with  at  least  one  other  whom  I  see  before  me  to 
Plymouth  Rock,  and  heard  his  splendid  discourse  on  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  —  I  can  hardly  recall  anything  of  his, 
more  striking  of  its  kind,  or  more  characteristic  of  its 
author,  than  that  elaborate  delineation  of  the  life  of 
Thomas  Dowse.  No  one,  certainly,  who  was  present  on 
the  occasion,  can  fail  to  recall  the  exhibition  which  he 
gave  us,  in  its  delivery,  of  the  grasp  and  precision  of  his 
wonderful  memory,  —  when  in  describing  the  collection 
of  water  colors,  now  in  the  Athenaeum  gallery,  which  was 
the  earliest  of  Mr.  Dowse's  possessions,  he  repeated, 
without  faltering,  the  unfamiliar  names  of  more  than 
thirty  of  the  old  masters  from  whose  works  they  were 
copied,  and  then  turning  at  once  to  the  description  of 
the  library  itself,  as  we  see  it  now  around  us,  proceeded 
to  recite  the  names  of  fifty-three  of  the  ancient  authors 


MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 


of  Greek  and  Eoman  literature,  of  nineteen  of  the  modern 
German,  of  fourteen  of  the  Italian,  of  forty-seven  of  the 
French,  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  of  the  Portuguese  and 
Spanish,  making  up  in  all  an  aggregate  of  more  than  one 
hundred  and  eighty  names  of  artists  and  authors,  many  of 
them  as  hard  to  pronounce  as  they  were  difficult  to  be 
remembered,  but  which  he  rehearsed,  without  the  aid  of 
a  note  and  without  the  hesitation  of  an  instant,  with  as 
much  ease  and  fluency  as  he  doubtless  had  rolled  off 
the  famous  catalogue  of  the  ships,  in  the  second  book  of 
Homer's  Iliad,  with  the  text-book  in  his  hand,  as  a  col 
lege  student  or  as  Greek  professor,  half  a  century  before  ! 

I  need  hardly  add  that  with  this  library,  now  our  most 
valued  treasure,  the  name  of  Mr.  Everett  will  henceforth 
be  hardly  less  identified  than  that  of  Mr.  Dowse  himself. 
Indeed,  he  had  been  associated  with  it  long  before  it  was 
so  munificently  transferred  to  us.  By  placing  yonder  por 
trait  of  him,  taken  in  his  earliest  manhood,  upon  the 
walls  of  the  humble  apartment  in  which  the  books  were 
originally  collected,  —  the  only  portrait  ever  admitted  to 
their  companionship,  —  our  worthy  benefactor  seems  him 
self  to  have  designated  Edward  Everett  as  the  presiding 
genius  or  patron  saint  of  this  library  ;  and  as  such  he  will 
be  enshrined  by  us,  and  by  all  who  shall  succeed  us,  as 
long  as  the  precious  books  and  the  not  less  precious  can 
vas  shall  escape  the  ravages  of  time. 

I  may  not  omit  to  remind  you  that  our  lamented  friend 
—  who  was  rarely  without  some  labor  of  love  for  others 
in  prospect  —  had  at  least  two  matters  in  hand  for  us 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  which  he  was  hoping,  and  which 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  131 

we  all  were  hoping,  that  he  would  soon  be  able  to  com 
plete.  One  of  them  was  a  memoir  of  that  noble  patriot 
of  South  Carolina,  James  Louis  Petigru,  whose  lifelong 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  American  Union,  alike  in  the 
days  of  nullification  and  of  secession,  will  secure  him  the 
grateful  remembrance  of  all  to  whom  that  Union  is  dear. 
The  other  was  a  volume  of  Washington's  private  letters, 
which  he  was  preparing  to  publish  in  our  current  series 
of  historical  collections.  It  is  hardly  a  month  since  he 
told  me  that  the  letters  were  all  copied,  and  that  he  was 
sorry  to  be  obliged  to  postpone  the  printing  of  them  a 
little  longer,  in  order  to  find  time  for  the  annotations 
with  which  he  desired  to  accompany  them. 

But  you  do  not  require  to  be  told,  gentlemen,  that  what 
Mr.  Everett  has  done,  or  has  proposed  to  do,  specifically 
for  our  own  Society,  would  constitute  a  very  small  part  of 
all  that  he  has  accomplished  in  that  cause  of  American 
history  in  which  we  are  associated.  It  is  true  that  he 
has  composed  no  independent  historical  work,  nor  ever 
published  any  volume  of  biography  more  considerable 
than  the  excellent  memoir  of  Washington,  which  he  pre 
pared,  at  the  suggestion  of  his  friend  Lord  Macaulay, 
for  the  new  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.  But 
there  is  no  great  epoch,  —  there  is  hardly  a  single  great 
event,  —  of  our  national  or  of  our  colonial  history,  which 
he  has  jiot  carefully  depicted  and  brilliantly  illustrated 
in  his  occasional  discourses.  I  have  sometimes  thought 
that  no  more  attractive  or  more  instructive  history  of  our 
country  could  be  presented  to  the  youth  of  our  land,  than 
is  found  in  the  series  of  anniversary  orations  which  he 


132  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

has  delivered  during  the  last  forty  years.  Collect  those 
orations  into  a  volume  by  themselves ;  arrange  them  in 
their  historical  order  :  "  The  First  Settlement  of  New 
England,"  "  The  Settlement  of  Massachusetts,"  "The 
Battle  of  Bloody  Brook  in  King  Philip's  War,"  "  The 
Seven  Years'  War,  the  School  of  the  Revolution,"  "  The 
First  Battles  of  the  Eevolutionary  War,"  "The  Bat 
tle  of  Lexington,"  "The  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill," 
"Dorchester  in  1630,  1776,  and  1855;"  combine  with 
them  those  "  Anecdotes  of  Early  Local  History,"  which 
he  prepared  for  our  own  Society,  and  add  to  them  his 
charming  discourses  on  "  The  Youth  of  Washington,"  and 
"  The  Character  of  Washington,"  on  "  The  Boyhood  and 
the  Early  Days  of  Franklin,"  and  his  memorable  eulogies 
on  Adams  and  Jefferson,  on  Lafayette,  on  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  on  Daniel  Webster,  and  I  know  not  in  what 
other  volume  the  young  men,  or  even  the  old  men,. of 
our  land  could  find  the  history  of  the  glorious  past  more 
accurately  or  more  admirably  portrayed.  I  know  not 
where  they  could  find  the  toils  and  trials  and  struggles 
of  our  colonial  or  revolutionary  fathers  set  forth  with 
greater  fulness  of  detail  or  greater  felicity  of  illustration. 
As  one  reads  those  orations  and  discourses  at  this  mo 
ment,  they  might  almost  be  regarded  as  successive  chap 
ters  of  a  continuous  and  comprehensive  work  which  had 
been  composed  and  recited  on  our  great  national  anni 
versaries,  just  as  the  chapters  of  Herodotus  are  said  to 
have  been  recited  at  the  Olympic  festivals  of  ancient 
Greece. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  it  is  rather  as  an  actor  and  an 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  133 

orator  in  some  of  the  later  scenes  of  our  country's 
history,  than  as  an  author,  that  Mr.  Everett  will  be 
longest  remembered.  Indeed,  since  he  first  entered  on 
the  stage  of  mature  life,  there  has  hardly  been  a  scene 
of  any  sort  in  that  great  historic  drama,  which  of  late, 
alas,  has  assumed  the  most  terrible  form  of  tragedy,  in 
which  he  has  not  been  called  to  play  a  more  or  less 
conspicuous  part ;  and  we  all  know  how  perfectly  every 
part  which  has  been  assigned  him  has  been  performed. 
If  we  follow  him  from  the  hour  when  he  left  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  with  the  highest  academic 
honors,  at  an  age  when  so  many  others  are  hardly  pre 
pared  to  enter  there,  down  to  the  fatal  day  when  he 
uttered  those  last  impressive  words  at  Faneuil  Hall,  we 
shall  find  him  everywhere  occupied  with  the  highest 
duties,  and  everywhere  discharging  those  duties  with 
consummate  ability  and  unwearied  devotion.  Varied  and 
brilliant  accomplishments,  laborious  research,  copious 
diction,  marvellous  memory,  magnificent  rhetoric,  a  gra 
cious  presence,  a  glorious  voice,  an  ardent  patriotism 
controlling  his  public  career,  an  unsullied  purity  crown 
ing  his  private  life,  —  what  element  was  there  wanting 
in  him  for  the  complete  embodiment  of  the  classic  orator, 
as  Cato  and  Quinctilian  so  tersely  and  yet  so  compre 
hensively  defined  him  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  — 
"  Vir  bonus,  dicendi  peritus !  " 

But  I  may  not  occupy  more  of  your  time  in  these 
introductory  remarks,  intended  only  to  exhibit  our  de 
parted  friend  in  his  relations  to  our  own  Society,  and  to 
open  the  way  for  those  who  are  prepared  to  do  better 


MEMORIAL  OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 


justice  to  his  general  career  and  character.  Let  me 
only  add  that  our  standing  committee  have  requested  our 
associates,  Mr.  Hillard  and  Dr.  Lothrop,  to  prepare  some 
appropriate  resolutions  for  the  occasion,  and  that  the 
Society  is  now  ready  to  receive  them. 

Mr.  Hillard  then  proceeded  as  follows  :  — 

The  Psalmist  says,  "  The  days  of  our  years  are  three 
score  years  and  ten,  and  if  by  reason  of  strength  they  be 
fourscore  years,  yet  is  their  strength,  labor  and  sorrow." 
The  latter  part  of  this  sentence  is  not  altogether  true  ;  at 
least,  it  is  not  without  exceptions  as  numerous  as  the 
rule.  To  say  nothing  of  the  living,  we  who  have  wit 
nessed  the  serene  and  beautiful  old  age  of  Quincy,  pro 
tracted  more  than  twenty  years  after  threescore  years  and 
ten,  will  not  admit  that  all  of  life  beyond  that  limit  is  of 
necessity  "  labor  and  sorrow."  But  in  these  words  there 
is  much  of  truth  as  this,  that  he  who  has  lived  to  be 
threescore  and  ten  years  old  should  feel  that  he  has  had 
his  fair  share  of  life,  and  if  any  more  years  are  dropped 
into  his  lap  he  must  receive  them  as  a  gift  not  promised 
at  his  birth.  And  thus  no  man  who  dies  after  the  age  of 
seventy  can  be  said  to  have  died  unseasonably  or  prema 
turely.  But  the  shock  with  which  the  news  of  Mr. 
Everett's  death  fell  upon  the  community  was  due  to  its 
unexpectedness  as  well  as  its  suddenness.  We  knew 
that  he  was  an  old  man,  but  we  did  not  feel  that  he  was 
such.  There  was  nothing  either  in  his  aspect  or  his  life 
that  warned  us  of  departure  or  reminded  us  of  decay. 
His  powers  were  so  vigorous,  his  industry  was  so  great, 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  135 

his  sympathies  were  so  active,  his  eloquence  was  so  rich 
and  glowing,  his  elocution  still  so  admirable,  that  he  ap 
peared  before  us  as  a  man  in  the  very  prime  of  life,  and 
when  he  died  it  was  as  if  the  sun  had  gone  down  at  noon. 
The  impression  made  by  his  death  was  the  highest  trib 
ute  that  could  be  paid  to  the  worth,  of  his  life. 

In  1819,  after  an  absence  of  nearly  five  years,  Mr. 
Everett  returned  from  Europe  at  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
the  most  finished  and  accomplished  man  that  had  been 
seen  in  New  England,  and  it  will  be  generally  admitted 

* 

that  he  maintained  this  superiority  to  the  last.  From 
that  year  down  to  the  hour  of  his  death  he  was  constantly 
before  the  public  eye,  and  never  without  a  marked  and 
peculiar  influence  upon  the  community,  especially  upon 
students  and  scholars.  You  and  I,  Mr.  President,  are  old 
enough  to  have  come  under  the  spell  of  the  magician  at 
that  early  period  of  his  life,  when  he  presented  the  most 
attractive  combination  of  graceful  and  blooming  youth 
with  mature  intellectual  power.  The  young  man  of  to 
day,  familiar  with  that  expression  of  gravity,  almost  of 
sadness,  which  his  countenance  has  habitually  worn  of 
late,  can  hardly  imagine  what  he  then  was,  when  his 
"  bosom's  lord  sat  light  upon  his  throne,"  when  the  winds 
of  hope  filled  his  sails,  and  his  looks  and  movements  were 
informed  with  a  spirit  of  morning  freshness  and  vernal 
promise. 

In  the  forty-five  years  which  passed  between  his  return 
home  and  his  death,  Mr.  Everett's  industry  was  untiring, 
and  the  amount  of  work  he  accomplished  was  immense. 
What  he  published  would  alone  entitle  him  to  the  praise 


136  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

of  a  very  industrious  man,  but  this  forms  but  a  part  of 
his  labors.  Of  what  has  been  called  the  master-vice  of 
sloth  he  knew  nothing.  He  was  independent  of  the 
amusements  and  relaxations  which  most  hard-working 
men  interpose  between  their  hours  of  toil.  He  was 
always  in  harness. 

Some  persons  have  regretted  that  he  gave  so  much  time 
to  merely  occasional  productions,  instead  of  devoting  him 
self  to  some  one  great  work ;  but  without  speculating 
upon  the  comparative  value  of  what  we  have  and  what  we 
might  have  had,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  with  his  genius 
and  temperament  on  the  one  hand,  and  our  institutions  and 
form  of  society  on  the  other,  it  was  a  sort  of  necessity 
that  his  mind  should  have  taken  the  direction  that  it  did. 
For  he  was  the  child  of  his  time,  and  was  always  in  har 
mony  with  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  country  in  which  his 
lot  was  cast.  He  was  pre-eminently  rich  in  the  fruits  of 
European  culture  ;  Greece,  Rome,  England,  France,  Italy, 
and  Germany,  all  helped  by  liberal  contributions  to  swell 
his  stores  of  intellectual  wealth,  but  yet  no  man  was  ever 
more  national  in  feeling,  more  patriotic  in  motive  and  im 
pulse,  more  thoroughly  American  in  grain  and  fibre. 
Loving  books  as  he  did,  he  would  yet  have  pined  and 
languished  if  he  had  been  doomed  to  live  in  the  unsym 
pathetic  air  of  a  great  library.  The  presence,  the  com 
prehension,  the  sympathy  of  his  kind  were  as  necessary 
to  him  as  his  daily  bread. 

"  Two  words,"  says  Macaulay,  "  form  the  key  of  the 
Baconian  doctrine,  Utility  and  Progress."  I  think  these 
two  words  also  go  far  to  reveal  and  interpret  Mr. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  137 

Everett's  motives  and  character.  Not  that  he  did  not 
seek  honorable  distinction,  not  that  he  did  not  take 
pleasure  in  the  applause  which  he  had  fairly  earned ; 
but  stronger  even  than  these  propelling  impulses  was 
his  desire  to  be  of  service  to  his  fellowmen,  to  do  good 
in  his  day  and  generation.  He  loved  his  country  with 
a  fervid  love,  and  he  loved  his  race  with  a  generous 
and  comprehensive  philanthropy.  He  was  always  ready 
to  work  cheerfully  in  any  direction  when  he  thought 
he  could  do  any  good,  though  the  labor  might  not  be 
particularly  congenial  to.  his  tastes,  and  would  not  add 
anything  to  his  literary  reputation.  The  themes  which 
he  handled,  during  his  long  life  of  intellectual  action, 
were  very  various,  they  were  treated  with  great  afflu 
ence  of  learning,  singular  beauty  of  illustration,  and 
elaborate  and  exquisite  harmony  of  style,  but  always  in 
such  a  way  as  to  bear  practical  fruit,  and  contribute 
to  the  advancement  of  society  and  the  elevation  of 
humanity. 

So,  too,  Mr.  Everett  was  a  sincere  and  consistent 
friend  of  progress.  He  was,  it  is  true,  conservative  in 
his  instincts  and  convictions;  I  mean  in  a  large  and 
liberal,  and  not  in  a  narrow  and  technical  sense.  But 
that  he  was  an  extreme  conservative,  or  that  he  valued 
an  institution  simply  because  it  was  old,  is  not  only  not 
true,  but,  I  think,  the  reverse  of  truth.  He  had  a 
distaste  to  extreme  views  of  any  kind,  and,  by  the 
constitution  of  his  mind,  was  disposed  to  take  that 
middle  ground  which  partisan  zeal  is  prone  to  identify 
with  timidity  or  indifference.  But  he  was  a  man  of 

18 


138  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

generous  impulses  and  large  sympathies.  No  one  was 
more  quick  to  recognize  true  progress,  and  greet  it 
with  a  more  hospitable  welcome.  No  man  of  his  age 
would  have  more  readily  and  heartily  acknowledged  the 
many  points  in  which  the  world  has  advanced  since  he 
was  young. 

It  would  not  be  seasonable  here  to  dwell  upon  Mr. 
Everett's  public  or  political  career,  but  I  may  be  per 
mitted  to  add  that  I  think  he  had  genuine  faith  in  the 
institutions  of  his  country,  which  did  not  grow  fainter 
as  he  grew  older.  He  believed  in  man's  capacity  for 
self-government,  and  had  confidence  in  popular  instincts. 
He  was  fastidious  in  his  social  tastes,  but  not  aristo 
cratic  ;  that  is,  if  he  preferred  one  man  to  another  it 
was  for  essential  and  not  adventitious  qualities,  for 
what  they  were,  and  not  for  what  they  had.  He  was 
uniformly  kind  to  the  young,  and  always  prompt  to 
recognize  and  encourage  merit  in  a  young  person. 

Mr.  Everett,  if  not  the  founder  of  the  school  of 
American  deliberative  eloquence,  was  its  most  brilliant 
representative.  In  his  orations  and  occasional  discourses 
will  be  found  his  best  title  to  remembrance,  and  by 
them  his  name  will  surely  be  transmitted  to  future 
generations.  In  judging  of  them,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  the  aim  of  the  deliberative  orator  is  to  treat 
a  subject  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  and  fix  the  atten 
tion  of  a  popular  audience,  and  ibis  aim  Mr.  Everett 
never  lost  sight  of.  If  it  be  said  that  his  discourses 
are  not  marked  by  originality  of  construction,  or  philo 
sophical  depth  of  thought,  it  may  be  replied  that  had 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  139 

they  been  so,  they  would  have  been  less  attractive  to  his 
hearers.  They  are  remarkable  for  a  combination  of 
qualities  rarely,  if  ever  before,  so  happily  blended,  and 
especially  for  the  grace,  skill,  and  tact  with  which  the 
resources  of  the  widest  cultivation  are  so  used  as  to 
instruct  the  common  mind  and  touch  the*  common 
heart.  For,  whatever  were  the  subject,  Mr.  Everett 
always  took  his  audience  along  with  him,  from  first 
to  last.  He  never  soared  or  wandered  out  of  their 
sight. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  singular  beauty  and  finish 
of  his  elocution.  Those  who  have  heard  him  speak 
will  need  no  description  of  the  peculiar  charm  and 
grace  of  his  manner,  and  no  description  will  give  any 
adequate  impression  of  it  to  those  who  never  heard 
him.  It  was  a  manner  easily  caricatured  but  not  easily 
imitated.  His  power  over  an  audience  remained  unim 
paired  to  the  last.  At  the  age  of  seventy  he  spoke 
with  all  the  animation  of  youth,  and  easily  filled  the 
largest  hall  with  that  rich  and  flexible  voice,  the  tones 
of  which  time  had  hardly  touched. 

His  organization  was  delicate  and  refined,  his  tem 
perament  was  sensitive  and  sympathetic.  The  opinion 
of  those  whom  he  loved  and  esteemed  was  weighty  with 
him.  Praise  was  ever  cordial  to  him,  and  more  neces 
sary  than  to  most  men  who  had  achieved  such  high  and 
assured  distinction.  .  Doubtful  as  the  statement  may 
seem  to  those  who  knew  him  but  slightly,  or  only  saw 
him  on  the  platform  with  his  "robes  and  singing  gar 
lands"  about  him,  he  was  to  the  last  a  modest  and 


140  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

self-distrustful  man.  He  never  appeared  in  public 
without  a  slight  flutter  of  apprehension  lest  he  should 
fall  short  of  that  standard  which  he  had  created  for 
himself.  His  want  of  self-confidence,  and,  in  later  years, 
his  want  of  animal  spirits,  sometimes  produced  a  cold 
ness  of  manner,  which,  by  superficial  observers,  was  set 
down  to  coldness  of  heart,  but  most  unjustly. 

His  nature  was  courteous,  gentle,  and  sweet.  Few 
men  were  ever  more  worthy  than  he  to  wear  "  the 
grand  old  name  of  gentleman."  His  manners  were 
graceful,  more  scholarly  than  is  usual  with  men  who 
had  been  so  much  in  public  life  as  he,  and  sometimes 
covered  with  a  delicate  veil  of  reserve.  Conflict  and 
contest  were  distasteful  to  him,  and  it  was  his  disposi 
tion  to  follow  the  things  that  make  for  peace.  He  had 
a  true  respect  for  the  intellectual  rights  of  others,  and 
it  was  no  fault  of  his  if  he  ever  lost  a  friend  through 
difference  of  opinion. 

Permit  me  to  turn  for  a  moment  to  Mr.  Everett's 
public  life  for  an  illustration  of  his  character.  In  fo 
rensic  contests,  sarcasm  and  invective  are  formidable 
and  frequent  weapons.  The  House  of  Commons  quailed 
before  the  younger  Pitt's  terrible  powers  of  sarcasm. 
An  eminent  living  statesman  and  orator  of  Great  Britain 
is  remarkable  for  both  these  qualities.  But  neither 
invective  nor  sarcasm  is  to  be  found  in  Mr.  Everett's 
speeches.  I  think  this  absence  is  to  be  ascribed  not 
to  an  intellectual  want  but  to  a  moral  grace. 

Great  men,  public  men,  have  also  their  inner  and 
private  life,  and  sometimes  this  must  be  thrown  by  the 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

honest  painter  into  shadow.  But  in  Mr.  Everett's  case 
there  was  no  need  of  this,  for  his  private  life  was 
spotless.  In  conduct  and  conversation  he  always  con 
formed  to  the  highest  standard  which  public  opinion 
exacts  of  the  members  of  that  profession  to  which  he 
originally  belonged.  As  a  brother,  husband,  father,  and 
friend,  there  was  no  duty  that  he  did  not  discharge,  no 
call  that  he  did  not  obey.  He  was  generous  in  giving, 
and  equally  generous  in  sacrificing.  Where  he  was 
most  known  he  was  best  loved.  He  was  wholly  free 
from  that  exacting  temper  in  small  things  which  men, 
eminent  and  otherwise  estimable,  sometimes  fall  into. 
His  daily  life  was  made  beautiful  by  a  pervading  spirit 
of  thoughtful  consideration  for  those  who  stood  nearest 
to  him.  His  household  manners  were  delightful,  and 
his  household  discourse  was  brightened  by  a  lambent 
play  of  wit  and  humor;  qualities  which  he  possessed  in 
no  common  measure,  though  they  were  rarely  displayed 
before  the  public.  Could  the  innermost  circle  of  Mr. 
Everett's  life  be  revealed  to  the  general  eye,  it  could 
not  fail  to  deepen  the  sense  of  bereavement  which  his 
death  has  awakened,  and  to  increase  the  reverence  with 
which  his  memory  is  and  will  be  cherished. 

No  man  ever  bore  his  faculties  and  his  eminence 
more  meekly  than  he.  He  never  declined  the  lowly 
and  commonplace  duties  of  life.  He  was  always  ap 
proachable  and  accessible.  The  constant  and  various 
interruptions  to  which  he  was  exposed  by  the  innu 
merable  calls  made  upon  his  time  and  thoughts  were 
borne  by  him  with  singular  patience  and  sweetness. 


142  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

His  industry  was  as  methodical  as  it  was  uniform. 
However  busy  he  might  be,  he  could  always  find  time 
for  any  service  which  a  friend  required  at  his  hands. 
He  was  scrupulously  faithful  and  exact  in  small  things. 
He  never  broke  an  appointment  or  a  promise.  His 
splendid  powers  worked  with  all  the  regularity  and 
precision  of  the  most  nicely  adjusted  machinery.  If  he 
had  undertaken  to  have  a  discourse,  a  report,  an  arti 
cle,  ready  at  a  certain  time,  it  might  be  depended  upon 
as  surely  as  the  rising  of  the  sun. 

I  feel  that  I  have  hardly  touched  upon  the  remark 
able  qualities  of  Mr.  Everett's  mind  and  character,  and 
yet  I  have  occupied  as  much  of  your  time  as  is  becom 
ing.  I  have  only  to  offer  a  few  resolutions,  in  which  I 
have  endeavored  briefly  and  simply  to  give  expression 
to  what  we  all  feel. 

Mr.  Hillard  then  presented  the  following  resolutions  :  — 

Resolved,  That  as  members  of  the  Massachusetts  His 
torical  Society,  we  record,  with  mingled  pride  and 
sorrow,  our  sense  of  what  we  have  lost  in  the  death  of 
our  late  illustrious  associate,  Edward  Everett,  the  wise 
statesman,  the  eloquent  orator,  the  devoted  patriot,  the 
finished  scholar,  whose  long  life  of  singular  and  un 
broken  intellectual  activity  has  shed  new  lustre  upon 
the  name  of  our  country  in  every  part  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  whose  noble  powers  and  unrivalled  accom 
plishments  were  always  inspired  by  an  enlarged  and 
enlightened  philanthropy,  and  dedicated  to  the  best  in 
terests  of  knowlege,  virtue,  and  truth. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  143 

Resolved,  That  we  recall  with  peculiar  sensibility  the 
personal  qualities  and  private  virtues  of  our  departed 
friend,  the  purity  and  beauty  of  his  daily  life,  his  strict 
allegiance  to  duty,  the  strength  and  tenderness  of  his 
domestic  affections,  the  uniform  conscientiousness  which 
regulated  his  conduct,  his  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  his 
thoughtful  consideration  for  the  rights  and  happiness  of 
others,  and  the  gentleness  with  which  his  great  facul 
ties  and  high  honors  were  borne. 

Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  Society  be  re 
quested  to  transmit  these  resolutions  to  the  family  of 
our  lamented  associate,  with  an  expression  of  our  deep 
sympathy  with  them  in  their  loss,  and  of  our  trust  that 
they  may  find  consolation  not  merely  in  the  remembrance 
of  his  long,  useful,  and  illustrious  career,  but  in  the 
hopes  and  promises  of  that  religion  of  which  he  was  a 
firm  believer,  and  which  was  ever  to  him  a  staff  of 
support  through  life. 

The  resolutions  were  seconded  by  Rev.  Dr.  Lothrop,  who 
then  addressed  the  meeting,  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  rise,  at  your  request  and  at  that  of 
the  standing  committee,  to  second  the  resolutions  which 
have  just  been  offered,  and  to  pay  my  portion  of  the  tribute 
of  profound,  grateful,  and  affectionate  respect,  which  the 
Society  would  offer  this  evening  to  the  memory  of  our  emi 
nent  deceased  associate.  And  as  we  gather  within  these 
walls  and  in  this  room,  where  we  have  so  often  welcomed 
his  presence,  I  feel  brought  back  upon  me  afresh  that 
sense  of  loneliness  and  of  personal  bereavement,  which,  in 


144  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

common  with  so  many,  I  had  when  I  first  heard  that  one 
who  for  more  than  forty  years  had  been  the  object  of  my 
youthful  and  my  mature  admiration,  one  whose  speech 
never  disappointed  me,  but  had  often  stirred  my  heart 
with  pure  and  noble  emotions,  and  to  whom  I  and  others 
had  so  long  been  accustomed  to  turn  upon  all  occasions  of 
public  interest  and  importance,  as  the  person  who  could 
do  and  say,  in  the  best  way,  the  best  things  to  be  done  and 
said,  was  really  dead,  and  that  the  utterances  of  his  wis 
dom  and  eloquence  would  never  more  be  heard  by  us  on 
earth.  My  sorrow,  however,  at  his  departure,  the  sorrow 
of  all  of  us,  I  think,  must  be  greatly  softened  by  the 
extraordinary  felicity  of  the  time  and  manner  of  his  death, 
and  by  the  recollection  of  the  grand  and  noble  career  of 
which  that  death  was  the  close. 

In  view  of  my  profession  and  the  pulpit  which  it  has 
been  my  honor  and  happiness  to  occupy  in  this  city,  it 
may  be  permitted  me,  in  glancing  at  his  career,  to  speak 
with  some  particularity  of  that  which  was  the  beginning 
of  it  before  the  public  —  his  brief  but  honorable  connec 
tion  with  the  clerical  profession,  and  his  short  but  brilliant 
pastorate  at  Brattle  Street  Church.  Mr.  Everett  has  said, 
I  believe,  that  on  leaving  college  his  strongest  preferences 
were  for  the  law  ;  but  the  influence  and  advice  of  friends, 
combining  with  the  promptings  of  his  own  heart,  the  deep 
religious  instincts  of  his  nature,  determined  his  choice  of 
the  Christian  ministry.  That  determination  must  now  be 
regarded  as  fortunate  for  him  and  for  us.  He  left  the 
pulpit,  indeed,  shortly  after  he  had  entered  it;  but  no 
true  man  ever  forgets  that  he  has  stood  in  it,  and  the 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  145 

studies,  the  spiritual  discipline  and  culture  of  his  early 
profession  seem  to  me  to  have  exerted  upon  Mr.  Everett's 
mind  and  heart  blessed  and  important  influences,  which 
affected  his  whole  subsequent  career,  and  impregnated  his 
life  and  character  with  the  simple  but  grand  dignity  of 
purity.  Graduating  in  1811,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  he 
spent  two  years  and  a  few  months  at  Cambridge,  pursuing 
theological  studies,  and  discharging  at  the  same  time  the 
onerous  duties  of  a  tutorship.  On  the  10th  of  December, 
1813,  a  mere  youth,  who  had  not  yet  numbered  twenty 
winters,  he  first  stood  in  Brattle  Street  pulpit  to  preach  as 
a  candidate.  Fame  had  preceded  him,  and  told  of  his 
talents  rich  and  rare,  of  his  great  learning  and  his  great 
capacity  to  learn,  —  marvellous  even  then  in  the  judgment 
of  his  peers  and  of  the  University,  —  of  his  extraordinary 
gift  of  golden  speech,  his  powers  of  winning,  persuasive 
oratory. 

The  great,  though  vague  and  undefined  expectations  thus 
awakened,  were  not  disappointed.  I  have  been  told  by 
many  who  distinctly  remember  the  occasion,  that  when  he 
rose  in  the  pulpit  that  morning,  a  youthful  modesty,  almost 
timidity,  blending  with  the  dignity  which  a  grave  and  rev 
erent  sense  of  the  importance  of  his  office  inspired,  lent  a 
fascinating  charm  to  his  manner,  and  that  from  the 
moment  he  opened  his  lips,  the  audience  were  held  spell 
bound  to  the  end  of  the  service.  When  the  days  of  his 
engagement  were  numbered,  the  universal  cry  was,  "  Come 
unto  us  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ;  break  unto  us  the  bread 
of  life,  and  let  all  these  rich  gifts  find  their  usefulness  and 
their  glory  in  the  service  of  the  Master  here  among  us." 

19 


146  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

He  heard  the  cry  as  the  leadings  of  Providence,  and  came. 
His  ordination,  on  the  9th  of  February,  1814,  was  an 
occasion  of  as  deep  interest  as  any  event  of  the  kind  ever 
excited.  The  most  eminent  and  excellent  men  of  that 
day  took  part  in  it.  It  brought  a  perfect  satisfaction  to 
the  people.  It  awakened  the  most  brilliant  anticipations. 
It  was  accompanied  not  simply  with  the  hope,  but  with 
the  conviction,  that  the  former  glory  of  that  pulpit,  which 
the  death  of  Buckminster  had  veiled  for  a  season,  would 
be  revived  with  increased  and  increasing  splendor.  That 
conviction  was  verified.  As  the  months  rolled  on,  Brattle 
Street  Church,  then  near  the  residences  rather  than  the 
business  of  the  people,  was  crowded  Sunday  after  Sunday 
with  audiences  of  the  intelligent  and  the  cultivated,  who 
went  away  charmed,  instructed,  religiously  impressed;  and 
the  records  of  the  communion  show  that  it  was  a  season  of 
spiritual  growth  as  well  as  of  outward  prosperity.  But 
the  year  had  not  reached  its  close  before  painful  rumors 
began  to  prevail  that  this  was  not  to  last,  and  at  the  end 
of  thirteen  months  after  his  ordination,  he  resigned  his 
charge,  to  accept  the  Eliot  Professorship  of  Greek  Litera 
ture  in  the  University  at  Cambridge,  to  which  he  had 
been  appointed  by  the  corporation,  with  leave  of  study 
and  travel  for  five  years  in  Europe,  in  further  preparation 
for  its  duties. 

He  left  the  clerical  profession,  and  virtually  the  pulpit, 
when  he  thus  left  Brattle  Street  Church.  On  his  return 
from  Europe,  indeed,  and  for  two  or  three  years  subse 
quent,  he  preached  occasionally,  some  ten  or  fifteen, 
perhaps  twenty  times  in  all.  I  may  be  permitted  a  brief 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  147 

allusion  to  some  of  these  occasions,  which  I  remember. 
-  First,  of  course,  he   preached  in  what  had  been  his  own 
pulpit,  Brattle  Street,  in  the  summer  of  1819,  a  few  weeks 
after  his  return.     I  was  one  of  the  mighty  company  that 
thronged  the  aisles  of  that  church  on  that  day,  and,  stand 
ing  on  the   window-seat  nearest  the  door  in  the   north 
gallery,  heard  him  for  the  first  time  when  I  was  just  old 
enough  to  receive  my  first  idea  of  eloquence,  to  understand 
and  feel  something  of  its  power.     A  month  or  two  later, 
in  December  of  that  year,  I  think,  he  preached  a  famous 
Christmas  sermon  at  King's  Chapel,  and  on  the  first  Sun 
day  in  December,  1820,  the  Quarterly  Charity  Lecture,  at 
the  Old  South  Church,  which  was  crowded  to  overflowing 
to  hear  him.     Another  memorable  and  impressive  sermon 
of  his,  preached  several  times  in  different  pulpits  in  this 
vicinity,  and  which  several  gentlemen   present  must  dis 
tinctly  remember,  was  on  the  text,  "  The  time  is  short." 
He   preached  the   sermon  at  the  funeral  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Bently,  of  Salem,  on  the  3d  of  January,  1820,  President 
Kirkland  and  Dr.  Ware  of  the  University  officiating  in 
the  other   parts  of  the  service.      This  arrangement  was 
probably  made  in  the  expectation  that  Dr.  Bently  had  left 
his  valuable  library  to  Harvard  College.     But  the  doc 
torate  from  Cambridge  was  conferred  too  late,  and  it  was 
found  that  the  library  had  been  bequeathed  to  Alleghany 
College  ;  so,  to  the  deep  regret  of  those  who  heard  it, 
Mr.    Everett's   sermon   on   this  occasion  was  never  pub 
lished.     On  the  19th  of  January,  1821,  he  preached  the 
sermon   at   the    dedication    of  the    First    Congregational 
Church  in  the  city  of  New  York,  of  which  the  late  Rev. 


148  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Wm.  Ware  subsequently  became  pastor.  This  sermon  was 
published,  and  is,  I  belieye,  the  only  sermon  he  ever  pub 
lished.  It  is  the  only  one  I  have  ever  seen.  In  style  it  is 
simple  and  grave,  less  rhetorical  than  his  orations.  It  is 
liberal,  but  conservative,  in  its  theology,  broad  and  catholic 
in  its  charity,  fervent  in  tone  and  spirit,  evidently  the 
product  of  a  devout  heart.  This  dedication  at  New  York 
was  the  last  or  among  the  last  occasions  on  which  he 
preached.  I  feel  quite  confident  that  he  did  not  preach 
after  1821,  because  the  next  year,  as  some  who  hear 
me  will  remember,  in  addition  to  the  lectures  connected 
with  his  professorship,  and  other  duties  at  Cambridge, 
he  was  occupied  with  a  course  of  lectures,  whose  prep 
aration,  judging  from  their  learning  and  brilliancy,  must 
have  cost  him  no  little  time  and  study,  on  Art  and 
Architecture,  —  more  especially,  if  my  memory  serves  me, 
on  Greek  and  Egyptian  Architecture, — which  he  delivered 
at  what  was  then  called  the  Pantheon  Hall,  on  Wash 
ington  Street,  a  little  south  of  the  Boylston  Market. 
Lectures  of  this  kind  were  then  unusual  in  Boston,  and 
these,  having  in  addition  to  their  novelty,  the  strong 
attraction  of  the  name  and  fame  of  the  lecturer,  were 
attended  by  an  audience  as  cultivated  and  appreciative 
as  ever  assembled  for  a  similar  purpose. 

From  this  review  it  appears  that  his  whole  connec 
tion  with  the  pulpit,  including  his  preparatory  studies 
and  pastorate  before  he  went  to  Europe,  and  the  period 
during  which  he  preached  occasionally  after  his  return, 
was  only  about  five  years.  His  exclusive  connection 
with  it  as  pastor  was  only  one  year  and  a  month  lack- 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  149 

ing  four  days,  from  the  9th  of  February,  1814,  to  the 
5th  of  March  1815.  In  this  brief  period  he  made  an 
impression,  as  a  preacher,  which  abides  distinct  and 
clear  to  this  hour  in  many  hearts.  He  left  the  pulpit 
with  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  eminent  and 
eloquent  man  in  it ;  and  he  left  in  and  with  the  pro 
fession  one  book  —  his  "Defence  of  Christianity" — 
which  at  the  time  it  was  published  was  justly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  learned  and  important  theological 
works  that  had  then  been  written  in  America,  and 
which,  considering  its  contents,  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  prepared,  and  the  extreme  youth  of  the 
author,  may  stil!  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  ex 
traordinary  books  produced  at  any  time  in  any  profes 
sion.  It  is  one  of  those  books,  of  which  the  paradox 
may  be  uttered,  that  its  success  caused  its  failure.  It 
so  perfectly  accomplished  its  work  that  it  almost  dropt 
out  of  existence.  Few  of  the  present  generation  ever 
heard  of  it,  fewer  still  know  anything  about  it.  Copies 
of  it  can  now  be  found  only  here  and  there,  on  the 
shelves  of  Public  Libraries,  or  among  the  books  of 
aged  clergymen.  It  was  prepared,  as  some  gentlemen 
here  will  remember,  in  reply  to  a  work  by  Mr.  George 
Bethune  English,  who  graduated  at  Cambridge  in  1807, 
the  year  Mr.  Everett  entered.  This  gentleman,  not 
without  talents,  but  erratic  in  his  career,  which  his 
death  terminated  in  1828,  remained  at  Cambridge  four 
or  five  years  after  graduating,  studied  theology,  and  I 
believe,  preached  for  a  brief  period.  Being  led,  appar 
ently  by  the  study  of  the  deistical  works  of  Anthony 


150  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Collins,  to  adopt  opinions  unfavorable  to  Christianity  as 
a  divine  revelation,  he  published  a  book  entitled.  "  The 
Grounds  of  Christianity  examined  by  comparing  the 
New  Testament  with  the  Old."  This  work,  plausible  in 
spirit,  having  the  appearance  of  great  candor  in  state 
ment  and  fairness  in  argument,  attracted  attention  and 
was  much  read.  It  unsettled  the  faith  of  many,  and, 
if  left  unanswered,  seemed  destined  to  do  this  for  many 
more. 

Mr.    Everett    did,    what    several    older    men,    I   have 
heard,  attempted  without  success ;  he  made  a  triumphant 
answer   to  Mr.    English's   book,  in   a  volume    of  nearly 
five  hundred  pages,  which  to  this  day  rAust  be  regarded 
as    replete  with    the    learning  bearing  upon   its  particu 
lar  point.     Cogent   in    argument,  clear    and  close  in    its 
reasoning,  eloquent  often   in   the  fervor    and  glow  of   a 
devout  faith,  keen  yet  kind  in  its  wit  and  satire,  conclu 
sive  in  its  exposition  of  the  ignorance  of  his  opponent, 
his  plagiarism,  and  his  dishonesty  in  the  use  of  his  ma 
terials,  this  book  so  completely  extinguished  Mr.  English 
and  his  disciples,   that   it  soon  ceased  to  be  read  itself. 
It  died  out,  as  I  have  said,  and  is  now  known  only  to 
a  few  of  the  older  members  of  the  community  and  the 
profession.     It  is  a  book  of  such  a  character,  that  any 
man  at  any  period  of  his    life    might   be  pardoned    the 
manifestation  of  some    little  self-complacency  at   finding 
himself  the    author    of   it.  '  Many   have    passed    a    long 
life  in    the  profession,  and   held  a  high    and    honorable 
position    in    it,    without     giving    any    evidence    of    the 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  151 

mastery  of  so  much  of  the  learning  that  belongs  to  it 
as  is  contained  in  this  work. 

His  "  Defence  of  Christianity,"  written  partly  before 
his  ordination  and  published  six  months  afterwards,  in 
August,  1814,  was  Mr.  Everett's  legacy  to  the  clerical 
profession,  bequeathed  to  it  before  he  was  invested 
with  a  legal  manhood.  I  am  aware  that  their  opinions  on 
the  Prophets  and  the  Old  Testament,  generally,  do  not 
permit  some  eminent  theological  scholars  to  put  a 
very  high  estimate  upon  Mr.  Everett's  "  Defence  of 
Christianity,"  but,  for  myself,  without  disparagement  of 
the  good  he  has  done,  and  the  honors  he  has  attained 
in  other  departments,  I  cannot  but  think,  that  if  there 
be  any  one  event,  work,  or  labor  of  his  varied  and 
useful  life,  of  which  he  may,  on  a  just  estimate  of  things, 
be  most  proud,  it  is  that  in  the  days  of  his  early  youth, 
on  the  very  threshold  of  his  career,  he  prepared  and 
published  this  book,  which  silenced  the  voice  of  infi 
delity  and  gave  peace,  satisfaction,  and  a  firm  faith  to 
thousands  of  minds  in  a  young  and  growing  community. 

We  are  not  surprised  that  a  career,  which  began  in 
such  industry,  in  the  exhibition  of  so  much  learning  and 
such  fidelity  in  improving  opportunity,  should  have  gone 
on  to  the  close  increasing  in  honor  and  usefulness.  I 
do  not  propose  to  follow  this  career  with  such  minute 
ness  all  through,-  nor  would  it  be  proper  in  me  to  do  so 
here ;  but  as  I  have  spoken  of  the  clergyman,  I  may  be 
permitted  to  say  something  of  the  Professor  at  Cambridge, 
as  I  am  the  only  member  of  the  Society  present,  who,  as  a 
pupil  in  the  Academic  Department  of  the  University, 


152  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

had  the  benefit  of  his  instructions  and   lectures.     Cam 
bridge  and  the  family  of  President  Kirkland  having  been 
my  home  for   several   years  before  I  entered    college  in 
1821,  not  long  after  he  entered  upon  his  professorship, 
I  knew  something    about   the    college,    and  had     ample 
opportunity  of  knowing  also  the  fresh  impulse  which  he 
gave  to  the  study  of  Greek,  by  the  general  influence  of  his 
reputation  as  a  Greek  scholar,  by  his  occasional  presence 
at  our  recitations  to  the  tutors  in  Greek,  by  his  suggestive 
directions  or  advice  to  such  students  as  wished  to  give 
special  attention  to  this  department,  but  chiefly  by  his 
lectures    on   the   Greek   language    and  literature,  which 
were  delivered  to  the  senior  class,  in  what  was  then,  there 
being  three,  the  second  or  Spring  Term  of  the   college 
year.     The  class  graduating  in  1825,  of  which  I  was  a 
member,  was    the  last  of  the  six  classes   who   had    the 
benefit  of  these  lectures.     From  my  recollection  of  them, 
from  notes  taken  at  the  time,  and  from  the  printed  synop 
sis  which  was  furnished  for  our  guidance,  I  have  a  strong 
impression  of  the   extraordinary   character  of  those  lec 
tures,    as    profound,    comprehensive,  discriminating,  and 
largely   exhaustive    of   all    the   learning    connected    with 
their  theme.     Had  he  published  them  when  he  resigned, 
he    would  have  left  in  his    Professor  chair  a  legacy   as 
remarkable,  in   its  kind,  as  his  legacy    to   the  pulpit   in 
his    "  Defence    of  Christianity,"    and  secured    to  himself 
such  a  reputation  as  a  Greek  scholar,  master  of  all  the 
learning    appertaining     to    the   history    and    criticism    of 
Greek  literature,  as  many  a  man  would  have  been  willing 
to  rest  upon  for  the  remainder  of  his  life. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  153 

But  while  professor  at  Cambridge,  Mr.  Everett  was 
interested  not  simply  in  his  immediate  duties,  but  in 
whatever  touched  the  welfare  and  improvement  of  the 
college.  In  all  departments  his  influence  was  felt,  and 
in  one  direction  he  wras  active  in  a  way  which  had  some 
connection,  I  suppose,  with  his  resignation  of  his  profes 
sorship  to  enter  upon  political  life.  In  1823,  some 
of  the  eminent  gentlemen  at  Cambridge,  then  resident 
professors,  took  up  the  thought,  not  without  some  quite 
substantial  reasons,  that  the  "  Fellows,"  as  they  are  term 
ed  in  the  Charter,  "  Members  of  the  Corporation,"  as  we 
commonly  designate  them,  should  be  chosen  from  among 
themselves;  that  the  authoritative  body,  controlling  the 
college,  having  primarily  the  charge  of  all  its  interests, 
and  the  conduct  of  all  its  affairs,  should  be  composed  of 
the  working  men  on  the  spot,  who  best  understood  its 
condition  and  its  wants,  and  were  most  competent  to 
carry  it  on  successfully,  rather  than  of  gentlemen  engaged 
in  other  occupations,  and  living  in  Boston,  Salem,  or  some 
more  distant  place.  In  1824,  they  prepared  a  memorial 
to  this  effect,  addressed  to  the  Corporation,  who  referred 
them  to  the  Board  of  Overseers,  before  which  body, 
a  hearing,  asked  for  and  granted,  was  subsequently 
held.  The  late  Andrews  Norton,  Dexter  Professor  of 
Sacred  Literature,  and  Mr.  Everett,  were  selected  to 
represent  the  memorialists  at  this  hearing.  Mr.  Norton 
read  a  very  able  paper,  marked  by  the  concise  accuracy 
of  statement  and  closeness  of  reasoning  for  which  he 
was  distinguished.  Mr.  Everett  without  manuscript, 
with  only  a  few  brief  memoranda,  such  as  a  lawyer 

20 


154  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

would  use  before  a  jury,  addressed  the  Board  in  a 
speech  occupying  more  than  two  hours.  He  was  inter 
rupted  at  times  by  gentlemen  of  the  Board  adverse  to  the 
position  of  the  memorialists,  the  accuracy,  a  pertinence, 
or  propriety  of  his  statements  questioned,  and  in  one 
instance,  if  not  more,  the  decision  of  the  Chair,  (Lieut. 
Gov.  Morton  presiding,)  that  he  was  "  not  in  order," 
required  him  to  change  his  line  of  argument  and 
remark.  Nothing,  however,  seemed  to  confuse  or  discom 
pose  him.  The  situation  was  novel  and  trying,  yet  he 
sustained  himself  with  an  admirable  degree  of  self-posses 
sion,  and  conducted  his  cause  with  great  ability.  I  have 
always  supposed  that  it  was  the  exhibition  of  his  powers 
on  this  occasion,  the  coolness  and  tact  with  which  he 
conducted  himself  in  an  argument,  and  sometimes  almost 
a  debate,  before  a  body  of  eminent  men,  some  of  whom 
were  opposed  to  his  position,  that  first  suggested  his 
nomination  to  represent  Middlesex  in  Congress,  and  that 
his  splendid  and  eloquent  oration  before  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  Society,  in  August,  1824,  only  helped  to  confirm 
the  purpose  of  his  nomination,  and  secure  his  election. 
Thus  much  at  least  is  clear,  any  distrust  that  may  have 
been  felt  in  any  quarter  as  to  his  fitness  or  competency 
for  congressional  service,  in  view  of  his  scholastic  train 
ing  and  habits,  found  a  conclusive  answer  in  the  manner 
in  which  he  bore  himself  in  this  hearing  before  the 
Board  of  Overseers. 

But  whatever  suggested  the  nomination,  it  was  made, 
and  he  was  elected  in  the  autumn  of  1824,  and,  delivering 
his  lectures  for  the  last  time  in  the  spring  of  1825,  he 


PROCEEDINGS    OF  THE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  155 

r 

resigned  and  took  his  seat  in  Congress  in  December  of 
that  year.  The  deep  regret  felt  and  expressed  by  many 
at  that  time,  that  "so  much  learning,  such  various  abilities, 
persuasive  eloquence,  and  rare  combination  of  qualities, 
were  lost  to  the  direct  service  of  literature  and  religion, 
must  be  largely  diminished,  if  not  entirely  extinguished  by 
his  eminent  and  brilliant  success,  by  his  wide-spread  use 
fulness  in  varied  departments  of  public  and  political  life, 
by  the  singular  nobleness  and  purity  of  his  whole  career, 
and  by  his  constant  fidelity  and  devotedness  to  the  interests 
of  truth,  virtue,  and  religion.  For  he  seems  to  me  to  have 
been  thus  faithful  and  devoted.  I  feel  disposed  to  main 
tain  that  Mr.  Everett  was  true  always  to  the  spirit  of  his 
early  vows,  and  though  he  did  not  continue  in  the  admin 
istration  of  religion  as  an  institution  of  society,  he 
continued  to  cultivate  its  spirit  and  power  in  his  heart, 
and  to  make  it  the  controlling  inspiration  and  energy  of 
his  life.  It  is  not  necessary,  nor  would  it  be  proper  for 
me  here,  to  go  into  an  analysis  of  his  speeches,  votes, 
or  conduct  at  various  junctures  in  our  public  affairs  during 
the  last  forty  years,  but  it  seems  to  me,  that  whatever 
difference  of  judgment  party  predilections  may  dispose  us 
to  entertain  about  portions  of  his  public  career,  a  broad, 
generous,  just,  and  fair  review  of  the  whole  of  it,  will  lead 
every  one  to  concur  in  the  position,  that  it  was  all  under 
laid  and  impregnated  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  with 
a  simple,  honest,  conscientious,  patriotic  purpose.  The 
very  admirable  and  beautiful  analysis  of  his  character, 
which  Mr.  Hillard  has  just  read  before  us,  seemed  to  me 
to  confirm  this  position,  and  to  give  the  true  explanation 


156  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

* 

of  his  course.  From  his  entrance  upon  public  life  in 
1825,  to  the  spring  of  1861,  all  through  those  more  than 
thirty  years,  in  which  the  struggle  between  the  antago 
nistic  elements  of  liberty  and  slavery  in  our  government 
and  institutions  came  up  in  various  forms,  he,  in  common 
with  many  of  our  greatest  statesmen  and  large  masses  of 
our  people,  felt  that  a  certain  line  of  policy  was  the 
wisest  and  the  best,  most  adapted  to  keep  the  peace,  to 
preserve  the  Union  from  dissolution,  and  the  Government 
and  the  country  from  ruin.  Therefore,  adhering  to  this 
policy,  adopted  on  conviction,  he  was  for  patience,  for 
bearance,  compromise,  concession,  for  yielding  anything 
and  everything  that  could,  not  simply  in  justice,  but  in 
generosity  and  honor,  be  yielded  to  satisfy  those  who 
were  perpetually  holding  over  us  the  menace  of  dissolu 
tion.  Honestly,  and  in  the  spirit  of  a  broad  patriotism,  to 
disarm  this  menace  of  all  occasion  and  all  justification, 
was  the  purpose  of  his  action  and  policy  while  in  public 
office,  and  of  his  efforts  as  a  private  citizen,  and  especially 
of  that  grand  national  pilgrimage  which  he  made  with  the 
life  and  character  of  Washington  as  the  theme  of  a  magni 
ficent  discourse,  which  he  delivered  so  many  times  to  such 
vast  assemblies  in  all  the  principal  cities  of  the  land,  in  the 
hope  that  under  the  shadow  of  that  august  name,  and  by 
the  glory  of  a  memory  so  sacred  to  all  of  us,  he  might 
allay  sectional  prejudice  and  the  strife  of  parties,  and 
bind  all  together  in  a  common  love  and  devotion  to  the 
Union.  But  when  this  hope  failed,  and  he  found  that 
treason  had  developed  its  plans,  that  rebellion,  unfurling  its 
standard,  had  inaugurated  civil  war,  then  the  policy  that 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  157 

had  hitherto  guided  his  life  was  instantly  abandoned.  He 
fek  that  there  was  no  longer  any  room  for  concession  or 
compromise,  and  so  gave  himself,  time,  talents,  wisdom, 
strength,  all  that  he  had,  in  all  the  ways  that  he  could,  to 
support  the  legitimate  Government  of  the  United  States, 
in  all  the  action  and  policy  by  which  that  Government 
sought  to  maintain  at  all  hazards  and  at  any  cost 
the  integrity  of  the  Union  and  country  which  that 
Government  was  instituted  to  preserve.  But  in  all  this 
he  was  under  the  inspiration  of  a  patriotism  that  always 
dwelt  in  his  heart,  though  in  these  latter  years  he  seems 
to  have  been  raised  to  an  energy,  enthusiasm,  and  earnest 
ness  of  effort,  that  indicate  a  deeper  and  stronger  convic 
tion  that  he  was  right  than  he  exhibited  or  perhaps  ever 
experienced  before. 

This  is  the  true  interpretation,  I  conceive,  to  be  put 
upon  Mr.  Everett's  political  course  as  a  public  man. 
In  our  estimate  of  him  intellectually,  it  will  not  be 
maintained,  I  presume,  that  Mr.  Everett  was  one  of 
those  grand,  original,  creative,  inventive,  productive 
minds,  that  strike  out  new  paths  in  science,  philosophy, 
or  the  policies  of  States.  Such  minds  come  upon  the 
world  only  in  the  cycle  of  centuries.  But  he  had  a 
mind  of  vast  powers,  capable  of  comprehending  princi 
ples,  gathering  up  details,  and  making  use  of  both. 
He  had  a  conscientious,  unwearied  industry,  and  conse 
quently  accumulated  vast  stores  of  knowledge  in  all  the 
departments  of  art,  science,  history,  and  literature.  He 
had  a  wonderful  memory,  raised  to  its  highest  power  by 
constant  culture  and  exercise.  He  had  a  rare  combi- 


158  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

nation  of  intellectual,  moral,  and  physical  faculties,  and 
above  all,  he  had  the  power  of  using  all  his  faculties 
and  all  his  acquisitions  with  grace,  beauty,  and  dignity, 
so  that  he  touched  nothing  that  he  did  not  illustrate 
and  adorn,  and  came  before  us  ever,  on  all  occasions, 
with  a  freshness  and  force  that  charmed  and  instructed. 
As  is  well  known  to  his  intimate  friends,  he  was  sin 
gularly  kind,  tender,  faithful,  and  true  in  every  domestic 
relation  of  life,  and  to  all  the  claims  of  kindred  and 
friendship,  with  a  warm  heart  under  a  reserved  manner, 
and  a  sympathizing  spirit  under  lips  often  reticent ;  and 
if,  remembering  this,  we  do  justice  to  his  private,  per 
sonal  character,  and  then  look  at  his  public  career,  at 
the  wide  circle  of  varied  offices  which  he  successively 
held,  at  the  labor  performed,  the  ability  displayed  in 
each ;  if  we  add  to  these  his  works  as  a  scholar  and  a 
literary  man,  —  his  magnificent  orations,  all  of  them  such 
masterpieces  of  eloquence,  pure  and  elevating  in  their 
impression ;  broad,  noble,  generous  in  their  thoughts ; 
breathing  ever  the  spirit  of  piety  and  patriotism,  fitted 
to  instruct  our  people  and  unfold  our  history,  while  they 
adorn  our  literature, —  his  numerous  contributions  to  the 
periodical  press,  especially  those  to  the  North  American 
Review,  often  profound  discussions  of  grave  questions  in 
literature  and  philosophy ;  if  we  then  crown  all  with  the 
noble  and  patriotic  labors  of  the  last  four  years,  we  find 
enough  surely  in  this  survey  to  win  for  him  alike  our  ad 
miration  and  our  gratitude ;  enough,  and  more  than  enough, 
to  dispose  us  to  bow  before  his  memory  in  reverence,  and 
accord  to  him  the  name  and  the  fame  of  being  a  great 


PKOCEEDINGS   OE  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  159 

man.      Where    shall   we   find   one  who    in   such   varied 
spheres  has  done  so  much  and  done  it  so  well  ?     His  was 
a  noble  life  and  character,  and  his  career,  followed  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end,  was   marvellous  in  its   early 
precocity,  its  growing  wisdom,  its  ever  increasing  breadth, 
and  its  grand  conclusion.    He  was  a  Franklin  Medal  scholar 
in  the  old  North  Grammar  School  at  the  age  of  ten,  a 
Franklin  Medal  scholar  at  the  Public  Latin  School  at  thir 
teen,  chief  in  his  class  at  Cambridge  at  seventeen,  a  tutor 
in  the  University  at  eighteen,  an  ordained  minister  of  the 
Gospel  before  he  was  twenty,  appointed  to  a  professorship 
of  Greek  literature  before  he  was  twenty-one,  elected  a 
member  of  Congress   at  thirty ;  and  thence,  after  a  few 
years'  service  in  the  halls  of  national  legislation,  he  was 
called  to  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  this  State,  all  of  whose 
affairs  he  directed  with  wisdom,  dignity,  and  usefulness, — 
and  thence  to  represent  his   country  abroad  in  one  of  its 
most  important  and  honorable  foreign  embassies,  —  and 
thence,  on  his  return  to  his  native  land,  to  preside  over 
the  interests  of  learning  at  its  oldest  and  most  advanced 
University,  —  and  thence  to  a  seat  in  the  National  Cabinet 
for  the  Department  of  State,  —  and  thence  to  a  place  in 
that  august  body,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  —  and 
thence,  through  noble 'and  patriotic  labors,  to  a  higher 
and  broader  place   than  he  had   ever  held  before,  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen ;  and  when  he  had  attained  to 
this    grand    preeminence,    to    be    the    foremost    private 
citizen  in  all  the  land,  holding  no  public  office,  but  wield 
ing  a  power  and  doing  a  service  which  mere  office  could 
never  do,  wearing  this  great  distinction  with  unaffected 


160  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

modesty,  walking  among  us  with  none  of  the  infirmities 
but  all  the  glory  of  age  upon  his  person,  and  the  wisdom 
of  age  in  his  speech,  —  then  the  beautiful  and  fitting  end 
came,  and  without  a  lingering  sickness,  without  a  shadow 
upon  his  noble  faculties,  suddenly  he  died.  Alone  in  his 
solitary  preeminence,  alone,  as  it  were,  he  died ;  and  that 
cold  Sunday  morning  air,  that  brought  a  chill  to  our 
bodies,  as  it  swept  through  our  streets  and  by  our  doors 
with  its  sad  announcement,  "  Edward  Everett  is  dead!" 
brought  a  chill  to  our  hearts  which  the  warmth  of  many 
summers  will  not  dispel,  and  left  an  image  and  a  memory 
there  that  will  abide  with  all  of  us,  beautiful  and  bright, 
so  long  as  we  live.  Mr.  President,  I  second  the  reso 
lutions. 

The  Hon.  John  C.   Gray  then  spoke  as  follows  :  - 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  Apart  from  the  intimation  with 
which  I  have  been  honored  through  you  and  other 
respected  friends,  I  might  have  been  prompted  by  my 
own  feelings  to  offer  a  few  remarks  on  this  most  sol 
emn  and  interesting  occasion.  One  of  the  few  remaining 
companions  of  my  youth  has  departed.  An  uninterrupted 
friendship  of  nearly  sixty  years  has  been  dissolved. 
But  I  am  not  here  to  speak  of  my  own  loss  or  my  own 
feelings,  but  to  contribute  in  doing  justice  to  the  memory 
of  the  deceased.  The  theme  is  a  most  copious  one. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  to  analyze  the  character  of  our 
friend,  still  less  to  indulge  in  vague  and  extravagant 
eulogy.  I  prefer  to  speak  briefly  of  those  points  in 
his  character  which  have  stamped  themselves  most  deeply 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  161 

on  my  own  memory.  We  were  of  the  same  class  in 
college,  and  for  two  years  of  our  college  life  occupied 
the  same  apartment.  I  have  ever  looked  back  on  that 
association  as  one  of  the  most  valuable,  as  well  as  one 
of  the  most  gratifying,  of  my  early  days.  His  ripeness 
of  judgment  was  not  less  remarkable  than  the  precocity 
of  his  genius.  But  there  is  yet  higher  praise. 

I  can  sayv  and  you  perceive  that  I  had  some  means 
of  knowing,  that  I  never  knew  one  who  preserved  a 
more  unruffled  temper.  Not  a  single  instance  can  I 
recollect  of  irritability.  Such  a  temper  must  of  neces 
sity  be  its  own  reward,  and  I  think  we  may  fairly 
ascribe  to  it  much  of  his  subsequent  greatness.  For, 
sir,  among  the  many  weighty  truths  which  fell  from 
his  lips,  I  recollect  none  more  striking  than  a  remark 
in  his  lecture  to  the  working-men,  while  recommending 
the  improvement  of  their  leisure  hours.  "  Generally 
speaking,"  he  observes,  "  our  business  allows  us  time 
enough,  if  our  passions  would  but  spare  us."  Never 
man  more  faithfully  practised  as  he  preached.  In  the 
course  of  his  life  he  had  his  share  of  those  chastening 
dispensations  which  come  in  various  shapes  and  degrees 
to  every  one.  But  none  of  them  caused  the  slightest 
remission  in  his  unwearied  industry.  The  great  sum 
mons-  which  awaits  us  all  found  him  at  his  work,  and 
so  it  would  have  done,  come  when  it  might.  I  shall 
say  little  more  of  his  college  life.  New  England  edu 
cation  was  not  then  what  it  has  since  become.  Mr. 
Everett  improved  his  literary  advantages  to  the  utmost, 
and  bore  off  the  first  honors. 

21 


162  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWAIID   EVERETT. 

I  pass  over  his  short  but  brilliant  ministry  in  the 
pulpit  and  his  years  of  assiduous  study  in  foreign 
countries.  Shortly  after  his  return  he  assumed  the  post 
of  editor  of  our  leading  review.  It  was  at  a  most  inter 
esting  period.  This  country  and  Great  Britain  had 
closed  their  contests  by  an  honorable  peace,  and  there 
was  on  our  side  a  general  disposition  to  cultivate  a 
friendly  and  respectful  feeling  towards  our  late  adver 
saries.  This  certainly  was  not  fully  reciprocated.  The 
leading  British  reviews  seemed  to  agree  in  nothing  so 
much  as  in  speaking  of  our  country  and  its  institutions 
with  hatred  or  contempt.  Mr.  Everett  felt  it  his  duty 
to  stand  forth  in  defence  of  our  good  name.  It  is  not 
a  little  to  his  praise  that  while  he  did  this  most  ably 
and  earnestly,  he  always  preserved  the  dignity  befitting 
his  cause  and  himself,  and  never  descended  to  meet  his 
antagonists  with  their  own  weapons.  There  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  his  candid  and  manly  appeals  to 
the  good  sense  of  the  people  of  England  were  not  in 
vain,  and  that  they  contributed  to  create  among  educated 
Englishmen  a  feeling  better  becoming  them  and  more 
just  to  us,  a  feeling  which  for  a  long  time  seemed  prev 
alent,  and  which  we  had  hoped  would  have  been  general 
and  permanent.  Mr.  Everett's  able  and  eloquent  defences 
of  the  good  name  of  his  country  naturally  led  to  invi 
tations  to  serve  her  in  public  trusts. 

I  will  not  pretend  to  say  that  such  invitations  were 
unacceptable.  Suffice  it  to  remark  that,  if  he  desired 
public  life,  he  never  accepted  an  office  which  was  not 
properly  offered,  never  purchased  one  by  pledges  in 


PROCEEDINGS    OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  1G3 

advance,  direct  or  indirect,  and  never  for  a  moment 
used  his  position  for  the  emolument  of  himself  or  his 
friends.  What  I  have  more  to  say  will  be  devoted  to 
his  personal  character,  A  spotless  private  character  has 
ever  been  considered  in  New  England,  and  I  trust  not 
in  New  England  alone,  as  one  of  the  elements  of  true 
greatness,  and  Heaven  forbid  that  it  should  ever  be  held 
in  light  estimation !  This  merit  was  his  beyond  impeach 
ment,  —  not  his  alone,  most  certainly,  but  his  eminence 
in  other  respects  rendered  his  example  in  this  more 
conspicuous,  and  thus  more  widely  beneficial.  Of  this 
character  I  shall  notice  one  leading  feature,  —  I  mean 
his  wakeful  and  unremitted  disposition  to  benefit  others. 
If  judged  by  his  fruits,  we  must  allow  that  Edward 
Everett  was  a  most  benevolent  man.  His  exertions  and 
resources  of  mind,  body,  or  estate  were  most  freely 
imparted  on  every  reasonable  call,  —  I  should  say  on 
every  reasonable  opportunity.  Whether  the  applicant 
was  a  friend  or  a  stranger,  the  occasion  conspicuous  or 
unconspicuous,  it  was  enough  for  him  that  he  could 
serve  or  oblige  in  great  or  small.  And  now,  sir,  I 
will  close  by  a  few  inquiries.  No  one  will  suspect  me 
of  disparaging  any  of  our  eminent  men,  departed  or 
surviving,  when  I  ask  — 

Has  any  one  among  us  ever  been  more  distinguished 
by  a  noble  use  of  noble  endowment  I  Has  there  been 
any  one  less  obnoxious  to  the  charge  of  talents  wasted 
and  time  misspent,  any  one  who  could  say  with  more 
truth  in  words  he  once  felt  compelled  to  utter,  that  he 
knew  not  how  the  bread  of  idleness  tasted]  Has  any 


164  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

one  done  more,  by  his  wise  and  eloquent  productions,  to 
elevate,  instruct,  and  refine  the  minds  of  his  countrymen"? 
Finally,  has  any  one  been  more  distinguished  by  exem 
plary  fidelity  in  public  office  and  by  constant  kindness 
and  benevolence  in  private  life]  Few  higher  eulogies 
can  be  uttered  than  the  reply  which  must  rise  to  the 
lips  of  every  one. 

George  Ticknor,  Esq.  then  addressed  the  meeting  as  follows  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  ask  your  permission  to  say  a  few 
words  concerning  the  eminent  associate  and  cherished 
friend  whom  we  have  lost, —  so  sadly,  so  suddenly  lost. 
It  is  but  little  that  I  can  say  becoming  the  occasion,  so 
well  was  he  known  of  all ;  for,  in  his  early  youth,  he  rose 
to  a  height,  which  has  led  us  to  watch  and  honor  and 
understand,  from  the  first,  his  long  and  brilliant  career. 

On  looking  back  over  the  two  centuries  and  a  half  of 
this  our  New  England  history,  I  recollect  not  more  than 
three  or  four  persons  who,  during  as  many  years  of  a  life 
protracted  as  his  was  beyond  threescore  and  ten,  have  so 
much  occupied  the  attention  of  the  country, —  I  do  not 
remember  a  single  one,  who  has  presented  himself  under 
such  various,  distinct,  and  remarkable  aspects  to  classes 
of  our  community  so  separate,  thus  commanding  a  de 
gree  of  interest  from  each,  whether  scholars,  theolo 
gians,  or  statesmen,  which  in  the  aggregate  of  its  popular 
influence  has  become  so  extraordinary.  For  he  has  been, 
to  a  marvellous  degree  successful,  in  whatever  he  has 
touched.  His  whole  way  of  life  for  above  fifty  years 
can  now  be  traced  back  by  the  monuments  which  he 


PKOCEEDINGS    OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  165 

erected  with  his  own  hand  as  he  advanced ;  each  seem 
ing,  at  the  time,  to  be  sufficient  for  the  reputation  of  one 
man.  Few  here  are  old  enough  to  remember  when  the 
first  of  these  graceful  monuments  rose  before  us ;  none 
of  us  I  apprehend  is  so  young,  that  he  will  survive  the 
splendor  of  their  long  line.  And,  now  that  we  have 
come  to  its  end,  and  that  it  seems  as  if  the  whole  air 
were  filled  with  our  sorrowful  and  proud  recollections,  as 
it  is  with  the  light  at  noonday,  we  feel  with  renewed 
force  that  we  have  known  him  as  we  have  known  very 
few  men  of  our  time.  And  this  is  true.  How,  then, 
can  I  say  anything  that  shall  be  worthy  of  memory ; 
still  less  anything  that  is  fit  for  record] 

When  he  was  ten  or  eleven  years  of  age  and  I  was 
about  three  years  older,  his  family  came  to  live  within  a 
few  doors  of  my  father's  house  and  subsequently  removed 
to  a  contiguous  estate.  But,  at  this  time,  Mr.  President, 
when  the  City  of  Boston,  I  suppose,  was  not  one  fifth  as 
large  as  it  is  now,  neighborhood  implied  kindly  acquaint 
ance.  I  soon  knew  his  elder  brother,  Alexander,  then 
the  leader  of  his  class  at  Cambridge,  while  I  was  a 
student  in  a  class  one  year  later,  at  Dartmouth  College. 
I  at  once  conceived  a  strong  admiration  for  that  remark 
able  scholar; — an  admiration,  let  me  add,  which  has  never 
been  diminished  since.  The  younger  brother,  of  whom 
I  saw  little,  was  then  in  that  humble  school  in  Short 
Street  which  he  has  made  classical  by  his  occasional 
allusions  to  it,  and  to  the  two  Websters  who  were  his 
teachers  there.  From  the  elder  of  these,  who  was  fre 
quently  at  my  father's  house,  I  used  to  hear  much  about 


166  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

the  extraordinary  talents  and  progress  of  this  younger 
Everett ;  praise  which  my  admiration  of  his  brother  pre 
vented  me,  I  fear,  from  receiving,  for  a  time,  with  so 
glad  a  welcome  as  I  ought  to  have  done.  During  the 
two  or  three  subsequent  years,  while  the  younger  brother 
was  at  Exeter  or  beginning  his  career  at  Cambridge,  I 
knew  little  of  him,  though  I  was  much  with  the  elder 
and  belonged  to  at  least  one  pleasant  club  of  which  he 
was  a  member. 

The  first  occasion  on  which  the  younger  scholar's  de 
lightful  character  broke  upon  me,  with  its  true  attributes, 
is  still  fresh  in  my  recollection.  It  was  in  the  summer  of 
1809.  Mr.  Alexander  Everett  was  then  about  to  embark 
for  St.  Petersburg,  as  the  private  secretary  of  Mr.  John 
Quincy  Adams,  and  a  few  nights  before  he  left  us,  he 
gave  a  supper — saddened,  indeed,  by  the  parting  that  was 
so  soon  to  follow,  but  still  a  most  agreeable  supper — to 
eight  or  ten  of  his  personal  friends,  one  of  whom  [Dr. 
Bigelow]  I  now  see  before  me ; —  the  last,  except  myself, 
remaining  of  that  well  remembered  symposium.  The 
younger  brother  was  there,  so  full  of  gayety  —  unassum 
ing  but  irrepressible  —  so  full  of  whatever  is  attractive  in 
manner  or  in  conversation,  that  I  was  perfectly  carried 
captive  by  his  light  and  graceful  humor.  And  this,  let 
me  here  say,  has  always  been  a  true  element  of  his  char 
acter.  He  was  never  at  any  period  of  his  life  a  saturnine 
man.  In  his  youth  he  overflowed  with  animal  spirits  ; 
and,  although  from  the  time  of  his  entrance  into  political 
life,  with  the  grave  cares  and  duties  that  were  imposed 
upon  him,  the  lightheartedness  of  his  nature  was  some- 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  167 

what  oppressed  or  obscured,  it  was  always  there.  There 
was  never  a  time  I  think  —  excepting  in  those  days  of 
trial  and  sorrow  that  come  to  all  —  in  which,  among  the 
private  friends  with  whom  he  was  most  intimate,  he  was 
not  cheerful,  nay  charmingly  amusing.  It  was  so  the 
very  day  before  his  death.  He  was  suffering  from  an 
oppression  on  the  lungs;  and,  as  I  sat  with  him,  he 
could  speak  only  in  whispers ;  but,  even  then,  his  natural 
playfulness  was  not  wanting. 

But  from  the  time  of  that  delightful  supper  in  1809, 
my  regard  never  failed  to  be  fastened  on  him.  At  first, 
during  his  under-graduate's  life,  at  Cambridge,  I  saw  him 
seldom.  But  in  that  simpler  stage  of  our  society,  when 
the  interests  of  men  were  so  different  from  what  they 
have  become  since,  all  who  concerned  themselves  about 
letters,  were  familiar  with  what  was  done  and  doing  in 
Cambridge.  Everett,  youthful  as  he  was,  \vas  eminently 
the  first  scholar  there,  and  we  all  knew  it.  We  all  —  or, 
at  least,  all  of  us  who  were  young  —  read  the  "  Harvard 
Lyceum,"  which  he  edited,  and  which,  I  may  almost  say, 
he  filled  with  his  scholarship  and  humor. 

In  1811  he  was  graduated  with  the  highest  honors, 
and  pronounced,  with  extraordinary  grage  of  manner,  a 
short  oration,  on  —  if  I  rightly  remember  —  "The  Diffi 
culties  attending  a  Life  of  Letters,"  which  delighted  a 
crowded  audience,  attracted  more  than  was  usual  by  the 
expectations  that  waited  on  what  is  called  "  The  first 
part."  But  thus  far,  what  was  most  known  of  his  life 
was  strictly  academic,  and  was  only  more  widely  spread 
than  an  academic  reputation  is  wont  to  be  because  he 


168  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

was  himself  already  so  full  of  recognized  promise  and 
power.  His  time,  in  fact,  was  not  yet  come.  But  the  next 
year  it  came.  He  was  invited  to  deliver  the  customary 
poem  at  Commencement,  before  the  "  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society."  It  was  not,  perhaps,  a  period,  when  much 
success  could  have  been  anticipated  for  anybody,  on  a 
merely  literary  occasion.  The  war  with  England  had 
been  declared  only  a  few  weeks  earlier  and  men  felt 
gloomy  and  disheartened  at  the  prospect  before  them. 
Still  more  recently  Buckminster  had  died,  only  twenty- 
eight  years  old,  but  loved  and  admired,  as  few  men  ever 
have  been  in  this  community; — mourned,  too,  as  a  loss 
to  the  beginnings  of  true  scholarship  among  us,  which 
many  a  scholar  then  thought  might  hardly  be  repaired. 
But,  as  in  all  cases  of  a  general  stir  in  the  popular  feel 
ing,  there  was  an  excitement  abroad  which  permitted  the 
minds  of  men  to  be  turned  and  wielded  in  directions 
widely  different  from  that  of  the  prevailing  current.  The 
difficulty  was  to  satisfy  the  demands  in  such  a  disturbed 
condition  of  things. 

Mr.  Everett  was  then  just  in  that  "  opening  manhood  " 
which  Homer,  with  his  unerring,  truth,  has  called  "the 
fairest  term  of  life."  And  how  handsome  he  was,  Mr. 
President!  We  all  know  how  remarkable  was  Milton's 
early  beauty.  An  engraving  of  him  —  a  fine  one  —  by 
Vertue,  from  a  portrait  preserved  in  the  Onslow  family, 
and  painted  when  the  poet  was  about  twenty,  is  well 
known.  But,  sir,  so  striking  was  the  resemblance  of  this 
engraving  to  our  young  friend,  that  I  remember  often 
seeing  a  copy  of  it  inscribed  with  his  name  in  capital  let- 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  169 

ters,  and  am  unable  to  say  that  the  inscription  was  amiss. 
Radiant,  then,  with  such  personal  attractions,  he  rose 
before  an  audience  already  disposed  to  receive  him  with 
extraordinary  kindness. 

His  subject  was,  u  American  Poets,"  certainly  not  a 
very  promising  one.  Of  course  his  treatment  of  it  was 
essentially  didactic ;  but  there  was  such  a  mixture  of 
good-natured  satire  in  it,  so  much  more  praise  willingly 
accorded  than  was  really  deserved,  such  humorous  and 
happy  allusions  to  what  was  local,  personal,  and  familiar 
to  all,  and  such  solemn  and  tender  passages  about  the 
condition  of  our  society,  and  its  anxieties  and  losses, — 
that  it  was  received  with  an  applause  which,  in  some 
respects,  I  have  never  known  equalled.  Graver  and 
grander  success  I  have  often  known  to  be  achieved,  on 
greater  occasions,  not  only  by  others  but  by  himself.  But 
never  did  I  witness  such  clear,  unmingled  delight.  Every 
thing  was  forgotten  but  the  speaker  and  what  he  chose 
we  should  remember. 

This  success,  it  should  be  recollected,  was  gained  when 
Mr.  Everett  was  only  a  little  more  than  eighteen  years 
old.  But,  sir,  in  fact,  it  had  been  gained  earlier.  The 
poem  had  been  read  when  he  was  only  about  seventeen, 
before  a  club  of  college  friends  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
senior  year,  and  had  now  been  fitted  by  a  few  additions, 
for  its  final  destination.  Its  publication  was  immediately 
demanded  and  urged.  But  on  the  whole  it  was  deter 
mined  not  to  give  it  fully  to  the  world.  Four  copies, 
however,  were  privately  struck  off  on  large" paper,  one  of 
which  I  received  at  the  time  from  the  author,  and  thirty- 

22 


170  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD    EVERETT. 

six  more  in  common  octavo,  whioh  were  at  once  dis 
tributed  to  other  eager  friends.  But  this  was  by  no  means 
enough.  A  little  later,  therefore,  there  were  printed, 
with  slight  alterations,  sixty  copies  more,  of  which  he 
gave  me  two,  in  an  extra  form,  marked  with  his  fair 
autograph.  I  know  not  where  three  others  are  now  to 
be  found ;  though  I  trust,  from  the  great  contemporary 
interest  in  the  poem  itself,  and  from  its  real  value,  that 
many  copies  of  it  have  been  saved. 

It  is  written  in  the  versification  consecrated  by  the 
success  of  Dry  den  and  Pope ;  and  if  it  contains  lines 
marked  by  the  characteristics  of  the  early  age  at  which ^ it 
was  produced,  there  is  yet  a  power  in  it,  a  richness  of 
thought,  and  a  graceful  finish,  of  which  probably  few  men 
at  thirty  would  have  been  found  capable.  At  any  rate,  in 
the  hundred  and  more  years  during  which  verse  had  then 
been  printed  in  these  Colonies  and  States,  not  two  hundred 
pages,  I  think,  can  now  be  found,  which  can  be  read 
with  equal  interest  and  pleasure. 

It  was  only  a  few  weeks  afterwards,  as  nearly  as  I 
recollect,  that  he  began  to  preach.  I  heard  his  first  two 
sermons,  delivered  to  a  small  congregation  in  a  neighbor 
ing  town,  and  I  heard  him  often  afterwards.  The  effect 
was  always  the  same.  There  was  not  only  the  attractive 
manner,  which  we  had  already  witnessed  and  admired, 
but  there  was,  besides,  a  devout  tenderness,  which  had 
hardly  been  foreseen.  The  main  result,  however,  had 
been  anticipated.  He  was,  in  a  few  months,  settled  over 
the  church  in  Brattle  Street,  with  the  assent  and  admira 
tion  of  all. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  171 

But,  in  the  midst  of  his  success  in  the  pulpit,  he  was 
turned  aside  to  become  a  controversial  theologian.  Early 
in* the  autumn  of  1813,  Mr.  George  B.  English  published 
a  small  book,  entitled,  "  The  Grounds  of  Christianity 
Examined  by  Comparing  the  New  Testament  with  the 
Old."  It  was,  in  fact,  an  attack  on  the  truth  of  the  Chris 
tian  religion,  in  the  sense  of  Judaism.  Its  author,  whom 
I  knew  personally,  was  a  young  man  of  very  pleasant 
intercourse,  and  a  great  lover  of  books,  of  which  he  had 
read  many,  but  with  little  order  or  well-defined  purpose. 
He  would,  I  think,  have  been  a  man  of  letters,  if  such  a 
path  had  been  open  to  him.  A  profession,  however,  was 
needful.  He  studied  law,  but  became  dissatisfied  with  it. 
He  studied  divinity,  but  was  never  easy  in  his  course. 
His  mind  was  never  well  balanced,  or  well  settled  upon 
anything.  He  was  always  an  adventurer — just  as  much 
so  in  the  scholarlike  period  of  his  life,  as  he  was  after 
wards,  when  he  served  under  Ismail  Pasha,  in  Egypt,  and 
attempted  to  revive  the  ancient  war-chariots  armed  with 
scythes. 

His  ill-constructed  book  received  several  answers,  direct 
and  indirect,  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press ;  but  none  of 
them  was  entirely  satisfactory,  because  their  authors  had 
not  frequented  the  strange  by-paths  of  learning  in  which 
Mr.  English  had  for  some  time  been  wandering  with 
perverse  preference.  Mr.  Everett,  however,  followed 
him  everywhere  with  a  careful  scholarship  and  exact 
logic  unknown  to  his  presumptuous  adversary.  His 
"  Defence  of  Christianity"  was  published  in-  1814,  and  I 
still  possess  one,  out  of  half  a  dozen  copies  of  it  that  were 


172  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

printed  for  the  author's  friends,  on  extra  paper,  and  are 
become  curious  as  showing  how  ill  understood,  in  those 
simpler  days,  were  the  dainty  luxuries  of  bibliography. 
But  the  proper  end  of  the  hook  was  quickly  attained. 
Mr.  English's  imperfect  and  unsound  learning  was  demol 
ished  at  a  blow ;  and.  as  has  just  been  so  happily  said  by 
Dr.  Lothrop,  the  whole  controversy,  even  Mr.  Everett's 
part  of 'it,  is  forgotten,  because  it  has  been  impossible 
to  keep  up  any  considerable  interest  in  a  question  which 
he  had  so  absolutely  settled.  Mr.  Everett's  "  Defence," 
however,  will  always  remain  a  remarkable  book.  Some 
years  after  its  publication,  Professor  Monk,  of  Cambridge, 
the  biographer  of  Bentley,  and  himself  afterwards  Bishop 
of  Gloucester,  told  me  that  he  did  not  think  any  Episcopal 
library  in  England  could  be  accounted  complete  which 
did  not  possess  a  copy  of  it. 

In  the  winter  following  the  publication  of  this  book  — 
that  is,  in  the  winter  of  1814-15  —  he  was  elected  Pro 
fessor  of  Greek  Literature.  I  was  then  at  the  South, 
having  made  up  my  mind  to  pass  some  time  at  the  Uni 
versity  of  Gottingen,  and  was  endeavoring,  chiefly  among 
the  Germans  in  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania,  to  obtain 
information  concerning  the  modes  of  teaching  in  Ger 
many,  about  which  there  then  prevailed  in  New  England 
an  absolute  ignorance  now  hardly  to  be  conceived.  With 
equal  surprise  and  delight,  I  received  letters  from  my 
friend  telling  me  of  his  appointment,  and  that,  to  qualify 
himself  for  the  place  offered  him,  he  should  endeavor  to 
go  with  me, upon  what  we  both  regarded  as  a  sort  of 
adventure,  to  Germany.  Perhaps  I  should  add  that  this 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  173 

sudden  change  in  his  course  of  life  excited  no  small  com 
ment  at  the  time,  and  that,  especially  by  a  part  of  the 
parish  whose  brilliant  anticipations  he  thus  disappointed, 
it  was  not  accepted  in  a  kindly  spirit.  But  of  its  wisdom 
and  rightfulness  there  was  soon  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of 
anybody. 

We  embarked  in  April,  1815,  and  passed  a  few  weeks 
in  London,  during  the  exciting  period  of  Bonaparte's  last 
campaign,  and  just  at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 
But  we  were  in  a  hurry  to  be  at  work.  We  hastened, 
therefore,  through  Holland,  stopping  chiefly  to  buy  books, 
and  early  in  August  were  already  in  the  chosen  place  of 
our  destination.  It  was  our  purpose  to  remain  there  a 
year.  But  the  facilities  for  study  were  such  as  we  had 
never  heard  or  dreamt  of.  My  own  residence  was  in 
consequence  protracted  to  a  year  and  nine  months,  and 
Mr.  Everett's  was  protracted  yet  six  months  longer  — 
both  of  us  leaving  the  tempting  school  at  last  sorry  and 
unsatisfied. 

How  well  he  employed  his  time  there  the  great  results 
shown  in  his  whole  subsequent  life  have  enabled  the 
world  to  judge.  I  witnessed  the  process  from  day  to  day. 
We  were  constantly  together.  Except  for  the  first  few 
months,  when  we  could  not  make  convenient  arrange 
ments  for  it,  we  lived  in  contiguous  rooms  in  the  same 
house  —  the  house  of  Bouterwek,  the  literary  historian, 
and  a  favorite  teacher  in  the  university.  During  the 
vacations  —  except  one,  when  he  went  to  the  Hague,  to 
see  his  brother  Alexander,  then  our  Secretary  of  Legation 
in  Holland  —  we  travelled  together  about  Germany  ;  and 


174  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

every  day  in  term  time  we  went  more  or  less  to  the  same 
private  teachers,  and  the  same  lecturers.  But  he  struck 
in  his  studies  much  more  widely  than  I  did.  To  say 
nothing  of  his  constant,  indefatigable  labor  upon  the 
Greek  with  Dissen,  he  occupied  himself  a  good  deal  with 
Arabic  under  Eichhorn,  he  attended  lectures  upon  modern 
history  by  Heeren,  and  upon  the  civil  law  by  Hugo,  and 
he  followed  besides  the  courses  of  other  professors,  whose 
teachings  I  did  not  frequent  and  whose  names  I  no  longer 
remember. 

His  power  of  labor  was  prodigious ;  unequalled  in  my 
experience.  One  instance  of  it  —  the  more  striking,  per 
haps,  because  disconnected  from  his  regular  studies  —  is, 
I  think,  worth  especial  notice.  We  had  been  in  Gottin- 
gen,  I  believe,  above  a  year,  and  he  was  desirous  to  send 
home  something  of  what  he  had  learnt  about  the  modes 
of  teaching,  not  only  there,  but  in  our  visits  to  the  univer 
sities  of  Leipzig,  Halle,  Jena,  and  Berlin,  and  to  the  great 
preparatory  schools  of  Meissen,  and  Pfrote.  He  had,  as 
nearly  as  I  can  recollect,  just  begun  this  task.  But  how 
so  voluminous  a  matter  was  to  be  sent  home  was  an 
important  question.  Regular  packets  there  were  none, 
even  between  New  York  and  Liverpool.  We  depended, 
therefore,  very  much  on  accident  —  altogether  on  tran 
sient  vessels.  Opportunities  from  Hamburg  were  rare 
and  greatly  valued.  Just  at  this  time  our  kind  mer 
cantile  correspondents  at  that  port  gave  us  sudden  notice 
that  a  vessel  for  Boston  would  sail  immediately.  There 
was  not  a  moment  to  be  lost ;  Mr.  Everett  threw  every 
thing  else  aside,  and  worked  for  thirty-five  consecutive 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  175 

hours  on  his  letter,  despatching  it  as  the  mail  was  closing. 
But,  though  sadly  exhausted  by  his  labor,  he  was  really 
uninjured,  and  in  a  day  or  two  was  fully  refreshed  and 
restored.  I  need  not  say  that  a  man  who  did  this  was  in 
earnest  in  what  he  undertook.  But  let  me  add,  Mr. 
President,  that,  by  the  constant,  daily  exercise  of  dispo 
sitions  and  powers  like  these,  he  laid  during  those  two  or 
three  years  in  Gottingen,  the  real  foundations  on  which 
his  great  subsequent  success,  in  so  many  widely  different 
ways,  safely  rested.  I  feel  as  sure  of  this  as  I  do  of  any 
fact  of  the  sort  within  my  knowledge. 

When  I  left  Gottingen,  he  and  a  young  American 
friend  [Stephen  H.  Perkins]  —  then  under  his  charge,  and 
who  still  survives  —  accompanied  me  on  my  first  day's 
journey.  At  Hesse  Cassel  we  separated,  thinking  to 
meet  again  in  the  south  of  Europe,  and  visit  together 
Greece  and  Asia  Minor,  which,  from  the  time  of  the 
appearance  of  "  Childe  Harold,"  four  or  five  years  earlier, 
had  been  much  in  our  young  thoughts  and  imaginations. 
But  "  Forth  rushed  the  Levant  and  the  Ponent  winds." 
A  few  months  afterwards,  at  Paris,  I  received  the  appoint 
ment  of  Professor  of  French  and  Spanish  Literature,  at 
Cambridge ;  and,  from  that  moment,  it  was  as  plain  that 
my  destination  was  Madrid,  as  it  was  that  he  was  bound 
to  go  to  Athens  and  Constantinople.  We  did  not,  there 
fore,  meet  again  until  his  return  home,  in  the  autumn  of 
1819,  where  I  had  preceded  him  by  a  few  months. 

From  this  time  Mr.  Everett's  life  has  been  almost  con 
stantly  a  public  one,  and  all  have  been  able  to  judge  him 
freely  and  fully.  He  began  his  lectures  on  Greek  litera- 


176  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

ture  at  Cambridge  the  next  summer,  and  I  went  from 
Boston  regularly  to  hear  them,  for  the  pleasure  and 
instruction  they  gave  me.  The  notes  I  then  took  of  them, 
and  which  I  still  preserve,  will  bear  witness  to  the  merit 
just  ascribed  to  them  by  the  friend  on  my  left,  who  heard 
the  same  course  somewhat  later. 

But  Mr.  Everett  was,  in  another  sense,  already  a  public 
man.  From  the  natural  concern  he  felt  in  the  fate  of  a 
country  he  had  so  recently  visited,  he  took  a  great. interest, 
as  early  as  1821-23,  in  the  Greek  Revolution,  and  wrote 
and  spoke  on  it,  both  as  a  philanthropic  and  as  a  political 
question.  In  1824  he  was  elected  to  Congress.  There 
and  elsewhere,  like  other  public  men  of  eminence,  he  has 
had  his  political  trials  and  his  political  opponents  ;  some 
times  generous,  sometimes  unworthy,  but  never  touch 
ing  the  unspotted  purity  of  his  character  and  purposes. 
All  such  discussions,  however,  find  no  becoming  place 
within  these  doors.  We  recognize  here  no  such  divisions 
of  opinion  respecting  our  lamented  associate.  We  remem 
ber  his  great  talents,  and  the  gentleness  that  added  to 
their  power  ;  his  extraordinary  scholarship,  and  the  rich 
fruits  it  bore  ;  his  manifold  public  services,  and  the  just 
honors  that  have  followed  them.  All  this  we  remember. 
In  all  of  it  we  rejoice.  We  recollect,  too,  that  for  five-and- 
forty  years,  he  has  been  our  pride  and  ornament,  as  a 
member  of  this  Society.  But  we  recognize  no  external 
disturbing  element  in  these  our  happy  recollections.  To 
us,  he  has  always  been  the  same.  At  any  meeting  that 
we  have  held  since  he  became  fully  known  to  us  and  to 
the  country,  the  beautiful,  appropriate,  and  truthful  reso- 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  177 

lutions  no\v  on  your  table,  might  —  if  he  had  just  been 
taken  from  us  as  he  has  been  now  —  have  been  passed  by 
us  with  as  much  earnestness  and  unanimity,  as  they  will 
be  amidst  our  sorrow  to-night.  They  do  but  fitly  complete 
our  record  of  what  has  always  been  true.  And  let  us  feel 
thankful,  as  we  adopt  this  record  and  make  it  our  own, 
that  —  grand  and  gratifying  as  it  is  —  neither  the  next 
generation  nor  any  that  may  follow  will  desire  to  have  a 
word  of  it  obliterated  or  altered. 

Hon.  John  H.  Clifford  then  proceeded  as  follows  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  Having  been  unable  to  participate  in 
the  last  offices  of  respect  to  the  remains  of  our  departed 
associate,  and  feeling  obliged  to  decline  the  distinguished 
service  to  which  I  was  invited,  of  pronouncing  a  more 
elaborate  address  upon  his  life  and  character  before  the 
two  Houses  of  the  Legislature,  I  could  not  forego  the 
opportunity  of  uniting  in  this  office  of  commemoration,  with 
an  Association  in  which  he  took  so  generous  an  interest, 
and  of  which  he  was  so  eminent  a  member. 

However  inadequate  must  be  any  expression  of  my 
sense  of  the  loss  we  have  sustained,  I  cannot  doubt  that 
the  assurance  of  a  simple,  heartfelt  tribute  of  personal 
affection  and  gratitude,  when  he  was  to  be  remembered 
in  a  circle  like  this,  would  have  been  more  grateful  to  him 
than  any  studied  words  of  eulogy,  though  they  were  pol 
ished  into  a  rhetoric  as  brilliant  as  his  own. 

It  is  thus  only,  that  I  desire  to  speak  of  him  —  my  hon 
ored  chief,  my  wise  and  trusted  counsellor  —  my  ever 
constant  friend.  It  was  from  his  hands  that  I  received, 


178  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

now  just  thirty  years  ago,  my  first  commission  in  the 
service  of  the  State ;  and  from  that  period  up  to  the 
close  of  the  last  month  of  the  last  year,  he  honored 
me  with  a  correspondence  which  I  have  carefully  pre 
served  as  a  precious  possession  for  myself  and  for  my 
children.  You  will  pardon  me,  Mr.  President,  if,  in 
this  brief  review  of  what  I  owe  to  the  influence  of  his 
friendship  and  his  counsels,  I  shall  invoke  his  presence, 
still  to  speak  to  us,  by  a  free  and  unreserved  reference 
to  this  correspondence. 

Admitted  to  the  intimate  intercourse  of  a  member  of  his 
military  family,  during  the  entire  term  of  his  service  as 
Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  he  never  afterwards 
ceased  to  manifest  the  interest  in  me  which  that  inter 
course  implied,  and  the  value  of  which  no  poor  words 
of  mine,  of  public  or  of  private  acknowledgment  can 
ever  measure  or  repay.  Of  that  military  family,  Mr. 
President, —  and  "  we  were  seven," — who  bore  his  com 
mission  during  those  four  years  of  brilliant  service  to  his 
native  Commonwealth,  you  and  I  are  the  only  survivors, 
to  render  these  last  honors  to  our  illustrious  chief. 

In  the  review  of  his  remarkable  career,  to  which, 
since  its  triumphant  close  on  earth,  the  minds  of  so 
many  have  been  turned  who  never  knew  him  otherwise 
than  in  his  public  character,  I  am  persuaded  that  some 
impressions  respecting  him,  which  those  who  were 
brought  nearest  to  him  know  to  be  utterly  unfounded, 
are  certain  to  be  corrected  when  the  materials  of  a  just 
judgment  of  all  that  he  was,  and  all  that  he  did,  are 
open  to  the  examination  of  his  countrymen. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  179 

It  has  been  said  of  him  that  he  was  of  a  cold  and 
unsympathizing  nature.  There  never  was  a  more  mis 
taken  judgment  of  any  public  man  than  this.  If 
he  possessed  any  trait  more  distinctly  marked  than 
another,  it  was  his  unfaltering  fidelity  to  his  friends, 
and  his  warm  and  generous  interest  in  everything  that 
touched  their  happiness  and  welfare,  as  well  in  the 
trials  and  the  sorrows,  as  in  the  successes  and  the  sun 
shine  of  life. 

While  he  was  representing  the  country  with  such 
signal  ability  at  the*  Court  of  St.  James,  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  grave  and  perplexing  questions  which  he 
there  discussed  and  disposed  of  with  such  masterly 
skill,  I  had  occasion  to  communicate  to  him  the  death 
of  a  much  loved  child,  in  whom  he  had  taken  great 
interest,  and  who  bore  his  name.  In  a  letter  written 
on  the  receipt  of  the  intelligence,  and  under  circum 
stances  that  might  well  have  excused  him  from  an 
immediate  reply, —  and  which  would  have  excused  him, 
if  that  reply  had  been  prompted  by  anything  less  than 
a  sincere  and  unaffected  sympathy,  which  does  not 
belong  to  a  cold  and  formal  nature, —  he  says:  "I  was 
staying  at  Sir  Robert  Peel's,  with  a  very  agreeable 
party,  consisting  of  several  of  the  cabinet  ministers,  and 
my  diplomatic  brethren,  when  I  received  your  letter, 
which  has  cast  a  shade  of  sadness  over  my  visit  that 
I  feel  as  little  inclination  as  ability  to  throw  off.  .  . 
But  let  us  not  speak  of  our  beloved  ones  as 
taken  from  us.  They  are,  in  truth,  not  lost,  but  gone 
before.  They  have  accomplished,  in  the  dawn  of  life, 


180  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

the  work  which  grows  harder,  the  longer  the  time  that 
is  given  us  to  do  it." 

Equally  erroneous,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  opinion  that 
Mr.  Everett,  as  a  public  man,  was  lacking  in  moral 
courage.  There  were  occasions  in  his  life  when  it  would 
have  required  less  courage,  and  have  cost  a  smaller  sacri 
fice  to  escape  this  imputation,  and  secure  to  himself  the 
popular  favor,  than  it  did  to  invite  it.  But  his  resolute 
adherence  to  his  own  conscientious  convictions,  his  large 
and  comprehensive  patriotism,  his  unswerving  nationality 
and  love  of  the  Union,  and  the  knowledge  which  a  schol 
ar's  studies  and  a  statesman's  observations  had  given  him 
of  the  perils  by  which  that  Union  was  environed,  closed 
many  an  avenue  of  popularity  to  him,  which  bolder,  but 
not  more  courageous,  public  men  than  he  could  consent 
to  walk  in. 

If  timidity  consists  in  an  absence  of  all  temerity  and 
rashness,  of  entire  freedom  from  that  reckless  spirit  which 
so  often  leads  "  fools  to  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to 
tread,"  let  it  be  ever  remembered  to  his  honor,  that  Mr. 
Everett  was  a  timid  statesman.  But  if  the  virtue  of 
moderation  is  still  to  be  counted  among  the  excellent 
qualities  of  a  ruler  or  counsellor,  in  conducting  the  com 
plex  and  delicate  questions  of  policy  which  affect  the 
well-being  of  a  country  like  ours,  and  which  bear  upon  its 
future  fortunes  as  well  as  its  present  favor,  let  it  also  be 
remembered  that  our  departed  statesman,  while  he  ad 
hered  inflexibly  to  his  convictions  of  the  right,  was  not 
"  ashamed  to  let  his  moderation  be  known  unto  all  men." 
In  this  aspect  of  his  character,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  181 

the  great  Pater  Patriee,  whom  he  had  so  diligently  studied, 
and  his  oration  upon  whom  wrought  as  great  a  work 
upon  his  countrymen  as  his  unsurpassed  biographical 
sketch  of  him  in  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  "  has  had 
upon  the  foreign  estimate  of  Washington,  was  "  his  great 
example,  as  he  was  his  theme." 

It  has  been  not  an  unfrequent  criticism  upon  Mr.  Ever 
ett's  career,  that  it  was  in  a  certain  sense  a  failure, 
because,  with  his  scholarly  tastes,  his  patient  industry,  his 
affluent  learning  and  his  great  opportunities,  he  would 
leave  behind  him  no  "  great  work"  as  the  fruit  of  all  his 
accomplishments  and  powers.  If  it  be  a  worthy  ambition 
in  one  of  great  endowments  and  liberal  culture,  to  do  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number  of  his  fellow-men, 
and  to  make  the  world  better  for  his  having  lived  in  it, 
this  is  a  mistaken  criticism.  It  is  true  his  resources  were 
ample  to  have  accomplished  any  "  great  work,"  such  as  this 
criticism  implies,  in  any  of  the  fields  of  intellectual  activ 
ity,  from  which  great  scholars  gather  their  ripened  har 
vests.  He  could  have  graced  the  shelves  of  our  libraries 
with  precious  octavos  of  history,  or  science,  or  literature. 
But  to  have  done  this  he  would  have  foregone  that 
"  greater  work  "  which  he  did  accomplish,  and  of  which 
the  three  volumes  already  published,  to  be  followed  we 
trust  by  many  more,  will  stand  forever  as  the  witness  and 
the  memorial  — "  Non  omnia  omnes  possumus."  And  he 
appointed  to  himself  the  nobler  task  of  elevating  the  pub 
lic  taste,  —  of  bringing  before  a  working  people  the  high 
est  truths  of  philosophy  in  a  style  of  adaptation  to  their 
wants  before  unknown  —  of  diffusing  throughout  the  com- 


182  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

munity  a  knowledge  of  great  historical  events  and  their 
application  to  the  duties  of  living  men,  —  of  implanting  in 
the  breasts  of  the  people  a  reverence  for  their  God-fearing 
ancestors,  and  in  justifying  the  ways  of  Providence  to 
them  and  their  posterity,  —  of  displaying  before  them  the 
brightest  deeds  and  the  most  heroic  sacrifices  of  patriot 
ism,  and  thereby  inspiring  in  them  the  warmest  love  of 
their  country,  and  instructing  them  in  the  duties  they 
owed  to  her,  —  all  these,  and  more,  of  the  glorious  proofs 
that  his  life  was  a  noble  success  and  in  no  sense  a  failure, 
glow  in  every  page  of  his  writings,  not  one  of  which  in 
dying  would  he  need  to  blot,  from  that  first  lecture 
before  the  Mechanics'  Institute  in  Charlestown,  down  to 
that  last  fervid,  Christian  appeal  in  Faneuil  Hall. 

Mr.  President,  I  speak  in  the  faith  of  the  clearest  con 
viction,  that  whatever  of  unjust,  or  censorious,  or  honestly 
mistaken  judgment,  has  ever  been  passed  upon  our  de 
parted  friend,  will  be  surely  modified,  if  not  entirely 
reversed,  in  all  candid  minds,  under  the  lights  with  which 
a  true  and  complete  history  of  his  life  will  illuminate  it, 
from  its  earliest  promise  to  its  latest  most  glorious  record. 
Already  one  of  his  contemporaries,  who  has  made  his 
own  name  "  imperishable  in  immortal  song,"  in  words  of 
manly  confession,  as  honorable  to  their  author  as  they  are 
just  to  the  memory  of  him  of  whom  they  were  spoken, 
has  anticipated  the  verdict  of  history. 

"  If,"  says  Mr.  Bryant,  "  I  have  uttered  anything  in 
derogation  of  Mr.  Everett's  public  character  at  times  when 
it  seemed  to  me  that  he  did  not  resist  with  becoming 
spirit  the  aggressions  of  wrong,  I  now,  looking  back  upon 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  183 

his  noble  record  of  the  last  four  years,  retract  it  at  his 
grave,  —  I  lay  upon  his  hearse  the  declaration  of  my 
sorrow  that  I  saw  not  then  the  depth  of  his  worth,  —  that 
I  did  not  discern  under  the  conservatism  that  formed  a 
part  of  his  nature,  that  generous  courage  which  a  great 
emergency  could  so  nobly  awaken." 

But  the  praises  of  men  were  now  of  little  worth,  had 
we  not  one  source  of  pride  and  affection  open  to  us  in  the 
contemplation  of  this  beneficent  life,  the  value  of  which 
no  words  of  eulogy,  apt  as  they  are  to  run  into  exaggera 
tion,  can  express  too  strongly.  The  manifold  temptations 
of  public  life,  whether  insinuating  themselves  through 
our  domestic  politics,  or  the  social  and  political  ethics  of 
the  national  capitol,  in  the  arts  of  diplomacy  or  through 
the  enervating  allurements  of  foreign  courts,  which  in 
some  of  their  Protean  forms  are  so  apt  to  assail  the  home- 
taught  virtue  of  our  public  men,  never  left  a  trace  of  their 
influence  upon  the  purity  of  his  unsullied  character.  To 
those  who  had  the  closest  view  of  him,  there  was  always 
apparent  his  constant  recognition  of  the  presence  and 
direction  of  a  Higher  Power  in  all  the  concerns  of  life. 
Abundant  illustrations  of  this,  indeed,  may  be  found  in  his 
published  works.  Who  that  has  read  it,  who  especially 
that  had  your  privilege  and  mine,  Mr.  President,  of  listen 
ing  to  it  as  it  fell  from  his  lips,  can  have  forgotten  that 
magnificent  passage,  in  my  judgment  the  most  eloquent 
he  ever  uttered,  in  his  speech  at  the  centennial  celebration 
at  Barnstable  in  1839?  —  a  passage  which  the  late  Chief 
Justice  Shaw,  who  was  present,  declared  to  me  was,  in  his 
opinion,  unsurpassed  in  modern  history. 


184  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

After  describing  the  condition  of  "  the  Mayflower 
freighted  with  the  destinies  of  a  continent,  as  she  crept 
almost  sinking  into  Provincetown  harbor,  utterly  inca 
pable  of  living  through  another  gale,  approaching  the 
shore  precisely  where  the  broad  sweep  of  this  remarkable 
headland  presents  almost  the  only  point  at  which  for 
hundreds  of  miles  she  could  with  any  ease  have  made  a 
harbor,"  he  adds :  "I  feel  my  spirit  raised  above  the 
sphere  of  mere  natural  agencies.  I  see  the  mountains  of 
New  England  rising  from  their  rocky  thrones.  They  rush 
forward  into  the  ocean,  settling  down  as  they  advance ; 
and,  there  they  range  themselves,  a  mighty  bulwark 
around  the  heaven-directed  vessel.  Yes,  the  everlasting 
God  himself  stretches  out  the  arm  of  his  mercy  and  his 
power  in  substantial  manifestations,  and  gathers  the  meek 
company  of  his  worshippers  as  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand." 

But  a  more  striking,  because  a  more  spontaneous 
expression  of  the  same  characteristic  spirit,  is  contained 
in  a  letter  of  farewell  which  I  received  from  him,  dated  at 
New  York  on  the  day  before  his  embarkation  for  Europe 
with  his  whole  family  in  the  summer  of  1840,  and  of 
course  written  amidst  all  the  distractions  incident  to  the 
preparations  for  his  voyage. 

The  intelligence  of  the  burning  of  the  packet  ship 
Poland  at  sea,  and  the*  rescue  of  her  passengers  from 
imminent  peril  by  a  passing  vessel,  had  then  just  been 
received  in  this  country.  "  The  fate  of  the  Poland,"  he 
writes,  ;i  makes  me  feel  strongly  how  near  to  death  we 
are  in  the  midst  of  life.  I  embark  with  all  mv  treasures 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  185 

with  some  misgivings.  But  having  undertaken  the  voyage 
from  proper  motives,  I  seem  to  be  in  the  path  of  duty, 
and  I  am  sure  I  am  in  the  hand  of  God.  There  are  many 
paths  to  his  presence.  And  whether  they  lead  us  singly, 
or  in  families,  or  companies,  —  whether  by  a  bed  of  lan 
guishing  on  land,  or  the  blazing  deck  of  a  burning  vessel, 
or  the  dark  abyss  of  the  sea,  can  be  of  but  little  conse 
quence  in  the  existence  of  an  undying  spirit." 

When  his  own  hour  had  come,  Mr.  President,  it  was 
through  no  such  avenue  of  suspense  and  sufferings  as 
these  that  his  Heavenly  Father  took  him  to  himself.  But 
in  welcoming  him,  as  our  faith  assures  us.  to  the  rewards 
of  a  "  good  and  faithful  servant,"  He  bore  him  from  our 
sight  so  graciously  as  to  leave  us  nothing  to  regret  from 
him,  either  in  his  death  or  in  his  life.  Why  should  we 
mourn  over  such  a  death, — the  serene  close  of  such  a  life 
on  earth,  the  entrance  upon  the  assured  rewards  of  the 

Life  Eternal] 

• 

"  If  ever  lot  was  prosperously  cast, 
If  ever  life  was  like  the  lengthened  flow 
Of  some  sweet  music,  sweetness  to  the  last, 
'T  was  his."  .... 

Not  the  music  of  that  matchless  voice  alone,  whose 
inspiring  cadences  seem  still  to  linger  in  our  ears,  as  we 
assemble  in  this  room,  where  it  so  often  charmed  and 
instructed  us,  but  the  diviner  harmony  to  which  he  gave 
such  magnificent  expression  by  a  rounded  and  completed 
life,  —  a  life  that  was  mercifully  spared  to  his  country  for 
its  greatest  work  during  its  closing  years ;  whose  music, 

24 


186  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

during  those  years  of  a  nation's  regeneration,  was  but  a 
prolongation  of  the  music  of  the  Union,  by  which  he 
marched,  himself,  and  inspired  his  countrymen  to  march, 
to  the  great  conflict  with  treason  and  with  wrong. 

Here,  and  wherever  throughout  the  world,  in  all 
coming  time,  the  gospel  of  constitutional  liberty  is 
preached  among  men,  shall  this,  his  last,  greatest  work, 
"be  told  as  a  memorial  of  him."  One  word  more,  Mr. 
President,  and  my  grateful  task  is  done. 

In  the  correspondence  from  which  I  have  so  freely 
quoted,  I  found,  a  day  or  two  ago,  a  striking  passage, 
which  seems  to  me  a  fitting  close  for  this  feeble  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  a  loved  and  honored  friend.  In  a  letter 
written  to  me  from  Washington  early  in  1854,  the  year 
that  he  resigned  his  place  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  he  says :  "I  have  never  filled  an  office  which  I  did 
not  quit  more  cheerfully  than  I  entered.  I  am  not  sure 
that  it  is  not  so  in  most  cases  with  the  last  great  act  of 
retirement,  not  from  the*  offices  and  duties  of  life,  but 
from  life  itself." 

Brethren,  to  what  far-off  sphere  of  celestial  fruition 
may  we  not,  without  presumption,  in  that  spirit  of  faith 
which  he  so  strongly  cherished,  follow  our  departed 
associate,  and  hear  again  the  music  of ,  that  voice,  repeat 
ing  this  sentiment,  now  verified  and  made  certain  in  the 
supreme  experience  of  that  last  Sabbath  morning  1 

Dr.  Walker  spoke  as  follows  :  - 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  Leaving  it  for  others  to  speak  of  Mr. 
Everett's  eminence  as  a  scholar  and  as  a  statesman,  and 


PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE  HISTORICAL    SOCIETY.  187 

of  the  purity  and  beauty  of  his  daily  life,  I  ask  permis 
sion  to  say  a  few  words  of  his  administration  as  President 
of  Harvard  College.  There  is,  I  believe,  a  prevailing 
impression  in  the  community,  that  this  part  of  his  public 
career  was  less  successful  than  the  rest.  Jf  so,  it  is 
to  be  imputed,  in  no  small  measure,  to  three  causes 
which  have  hindered  his  merits  and  services  as  Head 
of  the  University  from  being  duly  appreciated. 

The  first  of  these  causes  was  his  known  distaste  for  the 
office.  Most  of  us  remember,  that  when  he  was  appointed 
to  the  place,  the  community  were  of  one  mind  as  to  his 
being  precisely  the  man  to  fill  it,  —  with  a  single  excep 
tion  ;  but  that  was  an  important  exception,  for  it  was 
himself.  This  distaste  was  never  entirely  overcome ;  and 
there  are  those  who  have  construed  it  into  evidence  of 
want  of  success.  They  might  have  done  so  with  some 
show  of  reason,  if  it  had  grown  up  in  the  office ;  for,  in 
that  case,  it  might  be  regarded  as  resulting,  at  least  in 
some  degree,  from  disappointed  hopes.  But  when  it  is 
considered  that  the  distaste  was  as  strong,  and  perhaps 
stronger,  when  he  accepted  tfie  office,  than  when  he  laid 
it  down,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  ground  for  such  a 
construction. 

The  second  cause  which  has  hindered  the  public  from 
duly  appreciating  Mr.  Everett's  services  to  the  College  as 
President,  is  found  in  the  nature  of  the  reforms  and 
improvements  attempted  and  actually  introduced  by  him. 
With  his  accustomed  method  and  thoroughness,  he  could 
not  do  otherwise  than  begin  at  the  beginning.  Accord 
ingly,  one  of  his  first  undertakings  was  to  prepare  and 


188  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

publish,  under  the  proper  authorities,  a  careful  revision 
of  the  college  laws.  This  was  a  most  important  and 
necessary  work,  which  cost  months  of  anxious  labor ;  yet 
not  likely  to  attract  public  attention,  nor  even  to  be  known 
beyond  the  precincts  of  the  University.  Again,  he  be 
lieved  that  all  improvements  in  the  college,  to  be  of  much 
solidity,  must  have  their  foundation  in  its  improved  moral 
and  religious  condition.  No  president  ever  labored  more 
assiduously  or  more  anxiously  for  this  end,  nor,  consider 
ing  the  time  occupied,  with  more  success.  Indeed,  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  it  is  for  the  measures  he  insti 
tuted  or  suggested  with  a  view  to  promote  the  moral 
elevation  of  the  college,  that  its  friends  have  most  reason 
to  hold  him  in  grateful  remembrance.  Yet  these  also 
were  matters  which,  from  their  very  nature,  did  not  admit 
of  display,  and  some  of  them  not  even  of  publicity ;  nay 
more,  in  the  beginning  they  were  not  unlikely  to  occasion 
some  degree  of  opposition  and  trouble. 

But  the  principal  cause  hindering  a  due  appreciation  of 
Mr.  Everett's  presidency  of  the  college,  brief  as  it  was,  is 
doubtless  this  very  brevity.  *  If  his  health  had  permitted 
him  to  retain  the  office  ten  years,  I  have  no  doubt  that 
many  things  which  were  offensive  to  him  would  have 
disappeared.  His  attention,  meanwhile,  would  have  been 
turned  to  proper  academical  reforms,  noticeable  in  them 
selves,  and  bringing  the  college  into  notice  by  extending 
its  influence  and  fame.  And  this,  together  with  the  just 
pride  taken  in  his  distinguished  name,  and  the  unsur 
passed  dignity  with  which  he  represented  the  University 
on  all  public  occasions,  would  have  made  his  administra- 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  189 

tion  forever  illustrious  in  the  annals  of  the  college ;  and 
even,  within  its  limited  scope,  as  illustrious  for  him  as  any 
other  part  of  his  public  career.  Nor  is  this  all.  It  would 
then  have  been  seen  that  the  first  four  years,  those  which 
we  really  had,  were  an  appropriate  and  necessary  intro 
duction  to  the  whole ;  and  as  such,  they  would  have  come 
in  for  their  full  share  of  the  glory. 

Dr.   Holmes  read  the  following  Poem  :  — 

OUR  FIRST   CITIZEN. 

WINTER'S  cold  drift  lies  glistening  o'er  his  breast ; 

For  him  no  spring  shall  bid  the  leaf  unfold ; 
What  Love  could  speak,  by  sudden  grief  oppressed, 

What  swiftly  summoned  Memory  tell,  is  told. 

Even  as  the  bells,  in  one  consenting  chime, 
Filled  with  their  sweet  vibrations  all  the  air, 

So  joined  all  voices,  in  that  mournful  time, 
His  genius,  wisdom,  virtues,  to  declare. 

What  place  is  left  for  words  of  measured  praise, 
Till  calm-eyed  History,  with  her  iron  pen, 

Grooves  in  the  unchanging  rock  the  final  phrase 
That  shapes  his  image  in  the  souls  of  men? 

Yet  while  the  echoes  still  repeat  his  name, 

While  countless  tongues  his  full-orbed  life  rehearse, 

Love,  by  his  beating  pulses  taught,  will  claim 

The  breath  of  song,  the  tuneful  throb  of  verse,— 


190  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Verse  that,  in  ever-changing  ebb  and  flow, 

Moves,  like  the  laboring  heart,-  with  rush  and  rest, 

Or  swings  in  solemn  cadence,   sad  and   slow, 
Like  the  tired  heaving  of  a  grief-worn  breast. 

This  was  a  mind  so  rounded,  so  complete,  — 

No  partial  gift  of  Nature  in  excess,  — 
That,  like  a  single  stream  where  many  meet, 

Each  separate  talent  counted  something  less. 

A  little  hillock,  if  it  lonely  stand, 

Holds  o'er  the  fields  an  undisputed  reign, 

While  the  broad  summit  of  the  table-land 
Seems  with  its  belt  of  clouds  a  level  plain. 

Servant  of  all  his  powers,   that  faithful  slave, 
Unsleeping  Memory,  strengthening  with  his  toils, 

To  every  ruder  task  his  shoulder  gave, 
And  loaded  every  day  with  golden  spoils. 

Order,  the  law  of  Heaven,  was  throned  supreme 
O'er  action,  instinct,  impulse,  feeling,  thought ; 

True  as  the  dial's  shadow  to  the  beam, 

Each  hour  was  equal  to  the  charge  it  brought. 

Too  large  his  compass  for  the  nicer  skill 

That  weighs  the  world  of  science  grain  by  grain  ; 

All  realms  of  knowledge  owned  the  mastering  will 
That  claimed  the  franchise  of  his  whole  domain. 

Earth,  air,  sea,  sky,  the  elemental  fire, 

Art,  history,  song,  —  what  meanings  lie  in  each 

Found  in  his  cunning  hand  a  stringless  lyre, 

And  poured  their  mingling  music  through  his  speech, 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  191 

Thence  flowed  those  anthems  of  our  festal  days, 

Whose  ravishing  division  held  apart 
The  lips  of  listening  throngs  in  sweet  amaze, 

Moved  in  all  breasts  the  self-same  human  heart. 

Subdued  his  accents,  as  of  one  who  tries 

To  press  some  care,  some  haunting  sadness  down  ; 

His  smile  half  shadow ;    and  to  stranger  eyes 
The  kingly  forehead  woje  an  iron  crown. 

He  was  not  armed  to  wrestle  with  the  storm, 
To  fight  for  homely  truth  with  vulgar  power ; 

Grace  looked  from  every  feature,  shaped  his  form, — 
The  rose  of  Academe,  —  the  perfect  flower ! 

Such  was  the  stately  scholar  whom  we  knew 

In  those  ill  days  of   soul-enslaving  calm, 
Before  the  blast  of  Northern  vengeance  blew 

Her  snow-wreathed  pine  against  the  Southern  palm. 

Ah,  God  forgive  us  !    did  we  hold  too  cheap 

The  heart  we  might  have  known,  but  would  not  see, 

And  look  to  find  the  nation's  friend  asleep 
Though  the  dread  hour  of  her  Gethsemane? 

That  wrong  is  past ;  we  gave  him  up  to  Death 
With  all  a  hero's  honors  round  his  name  : 

As  martyrs  coin  their  blood,  he  coined  his  breath, 
And  dimmed  the  scholar's  in  the  patriot's  fame. 

So  shall  we  blazon  on  the  shaft  we  raise,  — 

Telling  our  grief,  our  pride,  to  unborn  years,  — 

1 '  He  who  had  lived  the  mark  of  all  men's  praise 
Died  with  the  tribute  of  a  nation's  tears." 


192  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

The  Hon.  Richard  H.  Dana  then  spoke  as  follows  :  - 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  This  full  tide  of  grief  and  admiration 
has  carried  along  with  it  all  there  is  of  eulogy,  and  there 
seems  nothing  left  for  me  to-night  —  not  wishing  to  say 
over  what  has  been  so  well  said  —  but  a  single,  common 
place  suggestion,  exciting  no  feeling,  and  entirely  below 
the  demands  of  the  hour.  I  would  simply  remind  you, 
brethren,  that  the  fame  of  Mr.  Everett  has  been  fairly 
earned. 

It  seems  to  me  that  he  has  earned  his  fame  as  fairly  as 
the  painter,  the  poet,  the  sculptor,  and  the  composer  earn 
theirs.  The  artist  submits  his  picture  or  statue,  the 
composer  his  oratorio,  and  the  poet  his  epic  or  lyric  to 
the  judgment  of  time,  and  abides  the  result.  Mr. 
Everett,  for  fifty  years,  year  by  year,  submitted  to  the 
judgment  of  his  age  orations,  essays,  lectures,  speeches, 
and  diplomatic'  letters,  and  abided  the  result.  If  the 
judgment  has  been  favorable  to  him,  what  can  have  been 
more  fairly  earned? 

It  has  not  only  been  earned  without  fraud  on  the  public 
judgment,  or  mistake  or  accident,  but  it  has  been  earned 
in  strict  compliance  with  the  primeval  law  of  labor — that 
in  the  sweat  of  the  brow  all  bread  shall  be  eaten.  It  has 
not  been  the  result  of  a  few  happy  strokes  of  genius.  He 
never  did  anything  except  with  all  the  might  his  mind 
and  body  could  lend  to  it.  He  was  first  scholar  at  Har 
vard,  because  four  years  of  competition  left  -him  so.  If 
he  was  in  anything  more  learned  than  other  men,  it  was 
because  he  did  his  best  with  great  natural  powers.  No 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  19JJ 

occasions  occurred  to  him  that  may  not  occur  to  all. 
What  other  men  made  little  of,  lie  made  everything  of. 
He  never  trusted  to  genius  or  to  chance.  He  owes  as 
little,  too,  as  any  man,  to  the  posts  he  has  filled.  Many 
derive  importance  from  holding  offices  that  connect 
them  with  great  events.  He  stands  upon  his  work,  irre 
spective  of  office  ;  and,  indeed,  his  best  and  brightest  acts 
have  been  those  of  a  private  citizen.  Yes,  brethren, 
every  stone  in  the  monument  he  has  builded  to  himself 
has  been  quarried,  fashioned,  and  polished  by  his"  own 
hand  and  eye. 

Fairly  earned,  his  fame  is  also  firmly  fixed.  His  style 
of  thought  and  expression  in  written  address  has  been 
tried  by  the  tests  of  novelty  and  of  familiarity,  of  same 
ness  and  of  variety,  in  old  communities  and  in  new 
communities ;  and  that  style  which  forty  years  before, 
in  its  freshness,  charmed  the  choice  spirits  of  a  critical 
community  of  readers  and  scholars,  was  found  in  its 
maturity,  nay,  almost  in  its  age,  equal  to  the  conflict 
with  the  trained  diplomatists  of  Europe,  before  the  forum 
of  nations. 

So  of  his  elocution.  An  orator  may,  by  accidental 
charm  of  voice  or  manner,  or  by  tricks  of  speech,  gain 
celebrity  for  a  time  ;  but  the  crucial  test  comes,  and  he  is 
found  wanting,  or  he  palls  and  stales  by  mere  custom. 
But  Mr.  Everett's  style  of  speech  has  been  tried  by 
every  test,  applied  to  every  variety  of  topic,  in  different 
countries,  and  has  survived  the  changes  and  chances  of 
taste  and  opinion,  as  potent  with  the  sons  and  daughters 
as  with  their  fathers  and  mothers.  At  threescore  and 

25 


194  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD  EVERETT. 

ten  the  spell  of  his  elocution  was  as  effective  as  in  the 
freshness  of  his  youth  or  the  vigor  of  his  manhood.  The 
eloquence  which  forty  and  fifty  years  ago  filled  Brattle 
Street  Church  to  the  window-tops,  which,  in  its  new-born 
beauty,  charmed  the  select  assemblages  at  Cambridge,  Con 
cord,  and  Plymouth,  was  found  in  its  gray  and  bent  age, 
equal  —  more  equal  tu^n  any  other  —  to  the  exigencies 
and  shocks  of  the  most  vast  and  momentous  popular 
canvass  the  world  ever  knew. 

The  Hon.  B.  F.  Thomas  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  If  I  had  consulted  my  own  judgment 
only,  it  would  have  been  to  listen  to  the  gentlemen  around 
me,  the  early,  the  life-long  companions  of  the  illustrious 
dead.  I  may  not  claim  to  have  been  of  Mr.  Everett's 
intimate  friends.  Though  I  have  met  him  occasionally 
in  private  life,  my  means  of  knowledge  are,  after  all, 
those  of  a  reader  and  hearer  of  his  public  discourse. 
Nor  have  I,  during  a  portion  of  his  public  life,  been 
drawn  to  him  by  ties  of  political  affinity  and  sympathy. 
Possibly,  following  the  courtesies  of  parliamentary  assem 
blies,  these  considerations  may  have  led  to  the  request 
that  I  should  say  a  word  this  evening. 

If  the  object  of  these  services  of  commemoration  were 
indiscriminate  eulogy,  the  custom  were  more  honored  in 
the  breach  than  in  the  observance ;  such  service  being 
good  neither  for  the  dead  nor  the  living.  If  we  had  no 
higher  or  nobler  purpose,  we  might  well  turn  to  the 
pressing  duties  of  life  and  of  the  hour,  and  let  the  dead 
bury  their  dead. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  195 

But  if  we  believe  the  saying  of  an  old  historian,  cited 
by  Bolingbroke,  that  history  is  philosophy  teaching  by 
examples;  if,  rejecting  the  godless  speculations  of  Buckle, 
we  recognize  in  history  the  power  and  influence  of  the 
individual  spirit ;  if  we  see  in  the  lives  of  great  and  good 
men  not  only  beacon  lights  on  the  line  of  human  progress, 
but  the  most  efficient  of  motive  powers,  the  causes  cans- 
antes;  that  great  and  good  men  not  only  make  history,  but 
constitute  history,  and  the  best  part  of  history  ;  no  work 
can  be  more  appropriate  to  an  historical  society  than  the 
commemoration  of  such  a  life. 

As  you  well  observed,  Mr.  President,  the  other  day  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  in  a  speech,  let  me  say,  so  worthy  of  its 
theme,   one    knows    hardly   where    to   begin   or   where 
to  end.     If  we  had  but  one  word  to  say,  it  would  be  per 
haps  that   Mr.   Everett  was   the  most   accomplished  man 
our  country  had  produced ;  of  the  widest,  most  varied  and 
finished  culture.     That  using  the  word  "  orator,"  in  the 
sense  in  which  it  has  come  to  us  from  classic  times,  he  was 
our  most  finished  "  orator,"  in  fertility  of  resources,  in  apt 
ness  of  use  in  grace  of  manner,  in  compass  and  music  of 
voice,  in  curious  felicity  of  diction,  seldom  if  ever  surpassed. 
Not  always  evincing  magnetic  power  or  projectile  force, 
or  the  ars  artium  celare  artem  ;  but  in  his  best  and  happiest 
moods  recalling    the    lines   in  which    Milton,'  with  such 
marvellous  beauty,  has  described  Adam,  wrapt,  entranced 
with  the  last  accents  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  Raphael :  — 

"The  angel  ended ;    but  in  Adam's  ear 
So  charming  left  his  voice  that  he  awhile 
Thought  him  still  speaking  —  still  stood  fixed  to  hear." 


196  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Though  it  was  as  a  graceful  and  eloquent  orator  that 
Mr.  Everett  was  most  widely  known  to  his  day  and  gener 
ation,  we  feel  that  in  saying  this  we  have  not  got  very  near 
to  our  subject ;  that  we  have  not  touched  upon  the  lines  of 
character  which  make  the  life  of  a  great  or  good  man  the 
worthy  subject  of  study  and  contemplation. 

Outside  of  revelation,  Mr.  President,  men  make  their 
own  gods.  They  project  them  from  within.  They  clothe 
them  with  their  own  passions,  they  dwarf  them  by  their 
own  infirmities.  So  it  is  in  the  construction  of  our  heroes 
and  great  men.  We  not  only  admire  chiefly  the  qualities 
in  which  we  discover  some  resemblance  to  our  own;  but 
we  are*  very  apt  to  dwell  on  them  as  the  salient  points  of 
character.  We  insist  upon  casting  men  into  the  moulds 
of  our  own  minds.  This  may  be  natural,  but  it  is  neither 
manly  nor  just.  That  only  is  a  manly  and  catholic  criti 
cism  which  appreciates  and  admires  qualities  utterly 
diverse  from  our  own ;  which  recollects  that  our  antipodes 
stand  also  on  the  solid  earth ;  that  there  may  be  diversities 
of  gifts  but  the  same  spirit,  differences  of  administration 
but  the  same  Lord  ;  that  the  eye  cannot  say  to  the  hand, 
I  have  no  need  of  thee,  nor  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have 
no  need  of  you ;  that  this  diversity  of  gifts  and  tendencies 
is  part  of  God's  economy  for  the  well-being  and  progress 
of  the  race. 

It  is  by  the  conflict  and  balance  of  forces  that  the  plan 
ets  kno*w  their  places  and  "  each  in  his  motion  like  an 
angel  sings."  A  like  conflict  and  balance  of  forces  is  the 
law  of  human  life  and  progress.  In  the  shallow  philoso 
phy  of  Pope,  there  is  not  a  shallower  commonplace,  than 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  197 

"  Just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree  's  inclined."  You  may 
twist  and  distort  the  growth  of  the  tree,  you  may  prune 
it  into  fantastic  shapes,  but  the  tree  as  God  meant  it  to  be 
lies  wrapt  in  the  germ,  before  the  warm  embrace  of  earth 
sends  it  up  to  greet  the  sun.  The  natural  differences  of 
men  overcome  and  outgrow  all  culture  and  discipline. 
These  two  sons  of  the  same  parents,  bred  at  the  same 
fireside,  trained  in  the  same  schools,  surrounded  by  the 
same  influences,  ripened  into  manhood,  the  one  shall  be 
come  in  politics  a  radical,  the  other  a  conservative.  In  re 
ligion  one  shall  be  the  most  protesting  of  protestants,  the 
other  repose  with  a  child's  trust  on  the  bosom  of  the  church. 

In  all  free  governments  political  parties  are  formed, 
and  though  they  spring  up  sometimes  for  local  and 
temporary  purposes,  yet  as  a  general  fact  and  in  their 
last  analysis,  they  will  be  found  to  be  radical  and  con 
servative,  the  one  having  progress  as  its  constant  aim, 
the  other  dwelling  upon  the  limitations  of  progress. 

In  the  best  sense  of  the  word  Mr.  Everett  was  a  con 
servative.  No  man  more  thoroughly  understood  or  more 
fully  appreciated  the  free  institutions  which  the  toils  and 
sacrifices  of  good  and  wise  and  true  men  of  twenty  gen 
erations  had  secured  to  us.  He  had  faith  that  whatever 
of  error  and  imperfection  was  to  be  found  in  the  work 
of  the  fathers  would  be  removed  by  peaceful  methods, 
by  the  progress  of  science,  and  art,  and  Christian  cul 
ture  and  civilization.  With  his  conservatism  was  found 
a  broad,  liberal,  and  catholic  spirit.  Bred  in  the  extreme 
school  of  Protestantism,  he  did  not  understand  by  liberal 
Christianity  the  negation  of  things  divine,  the  bowing  of 


198  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

religion  out  of  the  circle  of  the  human  mind.  He  did 
not  exclude  from  his  idea  of  mental  liberty  the  "  liberty 
of  obedience  ; "  the  liberty  with  which  Christ  makes  men 
free. 

'Bred  in  the  school  of  the  Puritans,  illustrating  their 
virtues,  admiring  their  sublime  devotion  to  duty,  he  could 
not  have  loved  Puritanism  the  less  because  it  was  asso 
ciated  with  the  venerable  past,  because  time  had  softened 
and  hallowed  its  more  rugged  features,  because  distance 
lent  enchantment  to  the  view. 

Bred  in  a  school  of  politics,  which,  though  of  the  high 
est  integrity,  had  strong  sectional  tendencies,  he  was 
among  the  most  national  of  our  statesmen.  No  part  of 
the  land  was  shut  out  from  his  sympathy  and  regard. 
His  patriotism  covered  the  country,  however  bounded. 
No  word  dropped  from  his  lips  or  pen  to  promote  sec 
tional  hate  or  strife.  His  public  life  was  a  ministry  of 
concord  and  peace.  He  .understood  the  compromises  of 
the  Constitution,  and  was  ready  faithfully  to  abide  by 
them.  He  appreciated  and  admired  this  marvellous  frame 
of  government,  by  which,  for  the  first  time  in  history, 
central  power  was  reconciled  with  local  independence,  the 
immunities  of  free  States  with  the  capacities  of  a  great 
empire.  From  the  first  to  the  last,  through  evil  report 
and  through  good  report,  he  clung  to  the  Union  of  these 
States  and  to  the  Constitution  as  its  only  bond.  No  man 
labored  more  earnestly  and  devotedly  to  avert  the  coming 
strife.  His  dread  of  civil  conflict  seemed  to  wear  at  times 
almost  the  aspect  of  timidity.  But  if  he  felt  more  strongly 
it  was  because  he  foresaw  more  clearly. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  199 

No  greater  injustice  can  be  done  to  Mr.  Everett,  than 
by  the  suggestion  that  in  the  last  three  or  four  years  of 
his  life  his  opinions  had  undergone  a  radical  change,  and 
that  the  services  of  the  past  three  years  were  a  sort  of 
propitiation  and  atonement  for  those  that  had  gone  before. 
Some  of  the  views  of  public  policy  developed  by  Mr. 
Everett  within  the  last  two  years  did  not  command  my 
assent.  That  was  equally  true  with  some  of  his  earlier 
opinions.  But  I  can  see  no  necessary  conflict  between 
Mr.  Everett  the  conservative  statesman,  the  life-long  de 
fender  of  the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  and  Mr.  Everett 
the  ardent  supporter  of  a  war  to  secure  from  destruction 
that  Union  and  Constitution.  Difference  of  judgment  as 
to  what  might  be  effected  by  force  of  arms  might  be  the 
result  of  changes  in  the  condition  of  the  country,  in  the 
unity  of  sentiment  and  action  in  the  loyal  States.  What 
seemed  to  him  impossible  in  1861,  might,  from  the  success 
of  our  arms,  seem  feasible  in  1864.  So  measures  that  he 
deemed  to  be  impolitic  at  the  first  period  might  seem  to 
him  to  be  demanded  by  the  necessities  of  the  second. 
Those  differences  marked  no  radical  change  of  principles ; 
and  one,  who  differed  from  him  on  some  few  questions  of 
policy  while  adhering  to  his  general  views,  may  be 
pardoned  a  word  to  save  him  from  the  too  great  kindness 
of  his  later  friends. 

Honor,  as  the  heart  shall  prompt,  his  labors  to  uphold 
the  arm  of  government  against  secession,  to  give  unity  to 
its  counsels  and  efforts,  to  bring  all  men  to  its  standard. 
We  may  honor  none  the  less  a  life  given  to  what  his 
nephew  and  my  friend  has  fitly  called  the  ministry  of 


200  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

conciliation,  to  the  victories  of  peace.  Nor  will  we  forget 
how,  at  the  first  glimpse  of  opportunity,  he  turned  to  his 
first  love ;  how,  when  the  cry  of  suffering  came  from  a 
conquered  city,  his  heart  went  out  to  meet  and  to  help  it ; 
how  naturally  he  recurred  to  the  power  of  Christian  sym 
pathies  and  kindness  ;  how  the  blessed  words  of  the 
royal  preacher  of  Israel  sprung  to  his  lips,  "  If  thine 
enemy  hunger,  feed  him  ;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink." 

Blessed  close  of  a  great  and  good  life.  Blessed  privi 
lege  to  forget  for  a  moment  the  horrors  and  glories  even 
of  war,  the  shouts  and  waving  banners  of  triumph,  to  sit 
again  at  the  feet  of  the  Divine  Master,  to  lean  upon  his 
bosom,  to  be  kindled  by  and  to  radiate  his  divine  love. 

Hon.  James  Savage  made  the  following  remarks  :  - 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  I  am  a  little  surprised  to  be  called  up  ; 
and  yet,  sir,  as  the  catalogue  of  the  Society  shows.  Mr. 
Everett's  name  stood  next  to  mine,  I  hope  I  may  be  ex 
cused  if  the  infirmity  of  age  is  more  apparent  than  any 
thing  else  in  what  I  say.  I  can  refer  to  the  early  days  of 
Mr.  Everett,  which  has  not  been  more  than  once  alluded 
to,  and  that  before  he  had  adopted  the  resolution  of  taking 
the  profession  of  a  preacher  of  the  Everlasting  Gospel. 
In  this  he  was  most  eminently  successful,  and  before  that 
I  remember  well,  sir,  that  the  boy  was  father  to  the  man. 

No  one  who  then  looked  at  him  and  heard  him,  would 
have  failed  to  foretell  the  success  which  attended  him.  Of 
Mr.  Everett,  I  supposse  it  can  be  said  as  of  other  men, 
that  he  touched  nothing  that  he  did  not  adorn.  I  cannot 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  201 

give  you  the  Latin,  sir,  but  it  is  one  of  the  very  strong 
illustrations  of  human  grace  and  felicity.  It  was  very 
observable.  When  I  was  in  England  I  had  the  advantage 
of  great  attention  from  Mr.  Everett.  When  their  chief 
statesman,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  was  suddenly  stricken  down 
by  instant  death  —  and  when  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen, 
another  great  friend  of  our  country,  succeeded  him, 'con 
tinuing,  to  maintain  all  our  just  rights  consistent  with  the 
rights  of  his  own  country,  —  I  had  the  advantage  of 
meeting  at  Mr.  Everett's,  more  than  once  or  twice,  some 
of  the  first  gentlemen  of  England,  chiefly  official  persons, 
and  there  to  observe  that  no  man  of  their  own  country 
was  more  attended  to  or  less  inclined  to  presume  upon 
that  attention.  He  seemed  to  be  always  the  servant  of 
the  public  in  private  as  well  as  in  public.  I  believe  that 
our  country  has  never  had  a  superior  minister  anywhere 
at  any  court.  I  only  wish  that  our  present  representative, 
my  younger  friend,  may  make  Mr.  Everett's  place  good. 

•4» 

Hon.  Emory  Washburn  addressed  the  meeting  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  shall  not  presume,  in  such  a  pres 
ence,  to  speak  of  Mr.  Everett  as  a  scholar,  for  I  should 
feel  that,  by  so  doing,  I  was  trespassing  upon,  ground 
which  would  be  so  much  more  properly  occupied  by 
others.  Nor  will  the  time  allotted  me,  admit  of  my  dwell 
ing  upon  the  prominent  part  which  he  has  taken  in  the 
historic  events  of  the  last  thirty  years  of  his  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  cannot  pretend  to  that  intimate 
relation  in  t^e  associations  with  him  with  which  I  have 
been  favored,  which  would  justify  my  attempting  to  draw 

26 


202  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD    EVERETT. 

the  nicer  shades  of  character  which  intimacy  alone  en 
ables  one  to  analyze  and  trace.  The  most  I  can  hope  to 
do,  is  to  give,  in  general  terms,  the  results  upon  my  own 
mind  of  the  observation  of  more  than  forty  years,  chiefly, 
of  his  public  life.  And  yet  I  have  too  often  shared  in 
his  acts  of  personal  kindness  and  courtesy,  not  to  feel  that 
I  have  a  right  to  speak,  also,  of  some  of  those  traits  of 
private  character  which  stand  out  so  prominently- in  the 
history  of  his  life. 

The  impression  which  my  study  and  observation  of  Mr. 
Everett's  career  have  left  most  strongly  defined  upon  my 
own  mind,  is  its  harmony  and  completeness  in  all  its  parts 
and  characteristic  qualities.  In  no  field  of  honor  or  use 
fulness  which  he  was  called  upon  to  occupy,  did  he  ever 
fail  to  meet  its  reasonable  requirements,  nor  did  he  ever 
shrink  from  the  labor  which  its  duties  imposed.  Many 
men  have  been  great  in  one  department  of  intellectual 
power  or  excellence,  without  possessing  any  claims  to 
distinction  in  any  other.  Some  cultivate  one  set  of  their 
powers  or  faculties,  at  the  expense  of  the  others.  And  of 
many,  the  judgments  which  we  form,  are  but  the  balanc 
ing  of  one  quality  against  another,  the  good  against  the 
evil,  in  order  to  ascertain  at  what  point  in  the  scale  of 
moral  worth  we  are  to  place  them,  in  the  estimate  which 
we  form  of  their  character.  The  great  warrior  may  be 
the  brutal  tyrant  or  the  sordid  miser.  The  brilliant  poet 
may  not  soar  above  the  atmosphere  of  his  own  vices,  and 
the  splendid  orator  while  arousing  and  wielding  the  pas 
sions  of  others,  at  his  will,  may  be  the  veriest  slave  of 
his  own.  Examples  like  these  serve  to  mark  the  contrast 


PROCEEDINGS,  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  203 

of  good  and  evil  which  are  found  in  so  many  of  the  men 
whom  the  world  has  called  famous. 

But  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Everett,  we  seek,  in  vain,  for  any 
such  contrasts  as  these.  It  was  not  because  there  were 
not,  in  the  constitution  of  his  mind  and  character,  prominent 
and  striking  qualities,  but  because  there  was  no  occasion 
to  go  through  the  process  of  balancing  these  qualities 
against  each  other,  in  order  to  determine  the  relative  rank 
of  merit  in  which  he  is  hereafter  to  be  held  in  the  judgment 
of  posterity.  His  character  in  this  respect  was  homoge 
neous  in  its  elements,  and  complete,  as  well  in  its  parts,  as 
in  the  relations  of  these  to  each  other. 

That  which  must  have  struck  every  one  who  knew  Mr. 
Everett  as  worthy  of  special  notice,  was  the  filling  up^  if  I 
may  so  say,  which  gave  to  his  life  and  character  that 
roundness  of  proportion  which  renders  it  difficult,  as  we 
now  look  upon  it,  to  say  which  of  the  traits  for  which  he 
was  distinguished,  stand  out  most  prominently  upon  the 
canvas.  The  picture  is  therefore  in  danger  of  being 
indistinct,  from  the  absence  of  shade  by  which  to  bring 
out  its  features  into  bolder  relief.  He  was  the  scholar  at 
the  same  time  that  he  was  the  orator  of  the  pulpit  and  of 
the  senate.  He  was  the  statesman  and  the  diplomatist, 
the  administrative  officer,  and,  for  many  years  of  his  life, 
the  leading  citizen  in  all  the  land.  He  was  the  Christian 
gentleman  and  the  patriot ;  —  and  he  won  in  them  all,  the 
respect  and  admiration  of  the  country.  And  yet,  who  is 
now  ready  to  say  in  which  of  these  he  transcended  his 
own  excellence  in  any  other  trait  into  which  his  character 
may  be  divided?  Had  he  been  either  of  these  alone, 


204  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   E*VERETT. 

there  would  have  been,  in  the  graces  and  accomplish 
ments  which  he  would  have  brought  to  its  duties,  enough 
to  haVe  given  to  his  life  in  that  sphere,  the  seeming 
finish  of  completeness.  This  is  what  I  mean  by  that 
filling  up  which  gave  such  an  admirable  fulness  and 
consistency  of  proportion,  in  his  character  and  life. 

I  might  illustrate  this  thought  further  by  referring  to 
what  is  familiar,  perhaps,  to  us  all.  It  is  more  than  forty 
years  since  I  first  heard  him  in  the  pulpit.  I  need  not 
say  with  how  much  delight  I  listened  to  the  rich  and 
varied  thought,-  the  beauty  of  diction,  the  inimitable  power 
of  description,  the  affluence  of  illustration,  and  the  pathos 
of  appeal  which  gave  so  much  life  to  his  sermons  of  that 
day.  These  qualities  of  high  pulpit  oratory  may  not 
have  been  peculiar  to  him.  But  there  was  added  to 
these,  a  beauty  of  countenance,  a  grace  in  action,  a 
sweetness  in  voice,  and  an  impressive,  though  almost 
measured  modulation  in  tone  and  cadence,  which  left 
upon  the  mind  of  the  hearer  the  conviction  that  he  was 
unsurpassed  as  a  rhetorician  and  an  orator. 

I  afterwards  heard  him  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  and 
there  he  was  no  less  at  home  than  in  the  pulpit.  And 
the  dignity  of  his  bearing,  the  mastery  he  showed  of  his 
subject,  and  the  eloquence  of  the  language  he  uttered, 
commanded  the  willing  attention  of  that  body,  while  it 
was  yet  dignified  by  men  of  eloquence  and  a  national 
fame. 

We  all  know  how  faithfully  and  conscientiously  he 
performed  the  duties  of  the  Executive  of  this  Common 
wealth.  Nothing  was  left  undone  which  courtesy,  or 


PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  205 

* 

kindness,  or  etiquette,  claimed  at  his  hand,  from  patiently 
listening  to  the  broken  language  of  the  wife  or  mother 
pleading  for  the  pardon  of  a  wayward  husband  or  son,  to 
those  dignified  state  papers  which  came  from  his  pen 
perfect  in  all  their  parts.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
manner  in  which  he  bore  himself  at  the  court  of  St. 
James,  and  as  successor  of  Mr.  Webster,  at  the  head  of 
our  American  court  at  Washington. 

And  in  this,  I  do  not  mean  to  refer  so  much  to  great 
exhibitions  of  skill  and  power  as  a  diplomatist  and  a 
statesman,  as  to  the  qualities  which  belonged  to  him  per 
sonally  as  a  man,  and  which  helped  to  grace  and  fill  up 
the  measure  of  his  official  character. 

But  this  character  for  completeness  to  which  I  have 
alluded,  may  perhaps  be  better  illustrated  in  the  personal 
qualities  which  he  exhibited  in  the  amenities  of  private 
life.  We  have  heard  him  called  cold  in  his  sympathies, 
and  ungenial  of  manners,  in  his  intercourse  with  others ; 
and  I  confess  that,  till  .1  knew  him,  I  thought  his  seeming 
reserved,  if  not  austere.  But  I  need  not  say,  in  this 
presence,  how  soon  this  impression  was  corrected  when 
one  came  in  direct  contact  with  him,  either  socially,  or  in 
the  ordinary  intercourse  of  private  life.  There  was  in 
his  organization  something  of  that  shrinking  delicacy 
which  makes  one  apparently  shy  and  sensitive.  But  I 
will  venture  to  say,  that  no  one  ever  went  to  him  for 
kindness,  or  sympathy,  or  counsel,  and  found  him  either 
cold  or  repulsive. 

He  never  forgot  the  courtesies  of  the  gentleman  in  his 
intercourse  with  any  man,  however  humble  or  devoid  of 


206  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

-it 

influence  he  may  have  been.  He  never  was  surpassed  in 
the  scrupulous  punctuality  with  which  he  replied  to  a 
correspondent,  however  unimportant  the  subject  addressed 
to  him,  nor  in  the  indulgence  with  which  he  received 
and  the  kindness  with  which  he  acknowledged,  the  well 
intended  but  often  equivocal  favor  of  printed  works  and 
papers,  with  which  authors  loaded  his  table  and  taxed  his 
time — the  thing  he  was  the  least  able  to  spare. 

The  kindliness  of  his  nature  was  manifested  in  a 
hundred  different  forms,  though  rarely  so  as  to  attract  the 
observation  or  applause  of  others.  In  all  the  trying  situa 
tions  in  which  he  was  placed,  at  times,  censured  by  party 
antagonism,  misconstrued  in  his  motives  and  his  acts,  and 
smarting  under  the  keen  rebuke  of  public  disfavor,  I  do 
not  believe  any  one  ever  saw  him  lose  the  dignity  of  his 
self  possession,  or  heard  him  indulge  in  harsh  or  uncour- 
teous  language  towards  his  bitterest  opponent. 

Nor  will  the  world  ever  know  how  often  the  deserving 
young  man,  struggling  with  adverse  circumstances,  has 
found  in  him,  what  he  needed  more  than  money  —  a  wise 
counsellor  and  a  kind  friend.  Hundreds  could  now  tell 
us  how  he  sought  them  out,  aided  and  encouraged  them, 
and  helped  them  onward  in  a  career  of  usefulness  and 
honor.  While  his  body  lay  waiting  for  that  august 
solemnity  in  which  a  whole  city,  and,  I  might  add,  a  State 
and  Nation  bore  a  part,  the  door  bell  of  his  house  was 
rung,  and,  upon  its  being  opened,  there  stood  upon  the 
threshold  a  young  man,  a  stranger,  in  the  dress  of  a 
junior  officer  in  the  navy.  He  asked  permission  to  come 
in  and  look,  once  more,  upon  the  form  and  face  of  Mr. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  207 

Everett.  "  I  am  a  stranger  to  you/'  said  he  to  the  gentle 
man  in  attendance,  "  but  Mr.  Everett  was  the  best  friend 
I  ever  had ;  he  procured  me  the  place  I  now  hold,  and 
from  that  day  has  never  failed  to  write  me  letters  of  en 
couragement  and  advice,  although  I  had  no  claim  upon 
his  kindness  and  generosity." 

Of  his  affluence,  whether  of  wisdom  or  learning,  of 
worldly  gifts  or  kindly  consideration,  he  never  withheld, 
when  appealed  to  by  objects  of  merit  and  desert. 

I  desire  also  to  say  a  single  word  upon  another  en  or 
into  which  the  public  mind  may  have  naturally  fallen. 
Whatever  he  wrote  or  delivered  was,  uniformly,  so 
finished  and  perfect  in  style  and  language,  as  well  as  in 
thought,  that  an  impression  became  general  that  he  had 
little  ready  or  spontaneous  eloquence,  and  that,  in  order 
to  meet  an  occasion,  he  must  have  time  for  careful  prepa 
ration.  In  the  danger  which  he  had  to  contend  with,  of 
having  himself  for  a  rival,  he  was,  undoubtedly,  loth  to 
speak  without  previous  preparation.  But  his  friends 
knew  th^at  he  was  not  only  a  man  of  ready  and  stirring 
eloquence,  but  that,  with  all  the  grave,  serious,  and  dig 
nified  manner  which  characterized  so  many  of  his  orations 
and  public  addresses,  he  had  a  fund  of  keen  and  sprightly 
wit,  of  playful  humor,  and  apt  and  gentle  repartee,  which, 
at  times,  electrified  the  hour,  and  delighted  whoever  was 
fortunate  enough  to  witness  them. 

It  might  seem  that  for  one  who,  through  a  long  period 
of  public  services,  had  shown  himself  worthy  to  hold  a 
place  in  the  foremost  rank,  nothing  could  be  needed  to 


208  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

fill  up  and  round  out  a  life  of  so  much   active  usefulness 
and  honor. 

But  do  we  not  all  feel,  now,  how  much  it  would  have 
wanted,  if  it  had  lacked  the  finish  with  which  the  history  of 
the  last  four  years  has  crowned  and  completed  the  work  ] 
Nobody  had  a  right  to  doubt  the  honesty  and  sincerity  of 
his  convictions  and  opinions,  however  much  one  may 
have  differed  from  him  in  the  matters  of  public  policy. 
But  he  saw  the  coming  of  that  dreadful  storm  which  has 
been  sweeping  over  our  country,  and,  like  many  other 
true  patriots,  he  was  willing  to  avert  it  by  a  conciliatory 
policy,  though,  by  so  doing,  he  subjected  himself  to  the 
imputation  of  timidity  or  want  of  heart.  But  when  he 
saw  that  the  scheme  of  the  conspirators  was  not  to  secure 
the  rights  which  were  theirs,  but  to  usurp  those  to  which 
they  Tiad  no  claim ;  when  he  saw  that  the  purpose  at 
which  they  aimed  was  not  peace,  but  the  overthrow,  by 
war,  of  the  Government  under  which  our  country  had 
grown  great  and  prosperous  and  happy,  he  threw  the  full 
weight  of  his  accumulated  power  of  intellect  and  influ 
ence  into  the  struggle,  and,  in  the  forgetfulness  of  old 
opinions  and  cherished  associations,  he  gave  up  to  his 
country  the  stores  of  learning,  the  resources  of  eloquence, 
and  the  gathered  energies  of  an  entire  life  devoted  to 
diligence  and  duty.  Men  no  longer  called  him  timid,  for 
he  showed  that  he  had  that  highest  of  all  courage,  which 
dares  to  go  against  one's  own  prepossessions  and  uttered 
opinions,  when  in  the  light  of  present  events,  he  looks 
back  upon  the  unintentional  mistakes  of  the  past.  The 
nation,  the  world  itself  looked  on  with  admiration,  as  this 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  209 

brave  old  champion  in  the  cause, of  right,  urged  on  the 
battle  by  his  trumpet  call  to  duty  and  to  arms.  And 
they  felt  that  his  record  was  complete,  his  life  rounded 
out  into  the  full  proportions  of  Christian  manliness, 
when  he  uttered  that  last  noble  appeal,  to  crown  the 
triumphs  of  a  nation's  success,  by  the  divine  magnanimity 
that  feeds  our  enemy  and  carries  him  comfort  in  the  hour 
of  prostration  and  distress. 

While  standing  upon  that  lofty  eminence  of  fame,  to 
which  a  long  and  arduous  life  of  noble  action  had 
raised  him,  it  was  a  kind  Providence  that  spared  him 
from  even  the  possibility  of  danger  of  any  coming  misap 
prehension  or  mistake.  He  laid  by  his  armor  before  the 
evening  shadows  had  dimmed  a  single  gleam  of  its  bright 
ness.  But  he  went  not  to  his  rest  till  his  last  day's  work 
was  fully  and  nobly  accomplished.  He  put  off  the  garb 
which  he  had  worn  amid  the  dust  and  toil  of  an  ever 
busy  life,  to  waken  to  a  new  existence  where,  while  the 
past  is  secure,  the  future  can  never  be  clouded  by  the 
passions  of  erring  nature,  or  the  frailties  of  human 
judgment. 

The  fame  which,  till  then,  had  been  in  his  own  keep 
ing,  he  left  in  charge  of  the  country  he  had  so  long 
served.  And  can  we  doubt  that  the  trust  will  be  sacredly 
kept  ?  They  will  rear  to  him  statues  and  monuments. 
And  they  wrill  do  more.  They  will  keep  these  monu 
ments  and  memorials  alive,  by  cherishing  the  memory 
of  the  man  to  whom  they  are  reared,  in  the  treasured 
offerings  of  a  nation's  history. 

It  will  be  but  another  illustration   of  the   immortality 

27 


210  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

which  the  fame  of  a  truly  great  man  lends  to  the  works 
of  art,  by  which  men  seek  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
the  dead.  The  chisel  of  the  artist  may  bring  out  from 
the  marble  the  form  and  features  of  one  whom  pride  or 
affection  may  seek  to  honor.  But  it  is;  at  last,  to  history 
that  we  must  look,  to  interpret  the  record  which  sculp 
ture  may  have  tried  to  register. 

You,  sir,  beautifully  reminded  us,  on  another  occasion, 
of  the  search  of  the  Roman  orator  amongst  the  rank 
weeds  and  gathered  rubbish  of  the  cemetery  of  Syracuse, 
for  the  forgotten  monument  of  Archimedes,  while  you 
reminded  his  countrymen  that  the  great  American  Philos 
opher  and  Statesman,  till  then,  had  no  memorial  of  art 
reared  to  him,  even  in  the  city  where  he  was  born. 
But  though  they  answered  that  appeal  with  a  generous 
alacrity,  the  enduring  bronze  of  which  his  speaking 
statue  is  fashioned  by  the  skilful  cunning  of  art,  would 
do  little  to  keep  his  memory  alive  for  the  service  of  pos 
terity,  if  his  name  had  not  been  enrolled  among  the  great 
names  that  shed  lustre  upon  the  pages  of  his  country's 
history. 

So  it  will  be  with  the  statue  which,  as  we  trust,  a 
gratified  people  will  place  by  the  side  of  his  great  com 
patriot,  in  the  front  of  our  Capitol.  It  is  fitting  that  it 
should  stand  there,  a  memorial,  immortal  in  the  light  of 
history,  of  the  man,  and  of  a  people's  gratitude.  The 
name  of  Everett,  repeated  to  the  inquirer  in  after  ages, 
will  reanimate  that  form,  and  it  will  speak  of  the  scholar, 
the  statesman,  the  orator,  the  patriot,  and  the  Christian 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  211 

gentleman,  to  whom  it  shall  have  been  reared  by  a  people 
that  knew,  and  loved,  and  honored  him. 

The  Eev.  Mr.  Waterston  read  the  following  communication 
from  John  G.  Whittier,  introducing  the  letter  by  the  words  of  Dr. 
Channing,  who  said  of  Mr.  Whittier,  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago  :  « '  His  poetry  bursts  from  the  soul  with  the  fire  and 
energy  of  an  ancient  prophet.  And  his  noble  simplicity  of  char 
acter  is  the  delight  of  all  who  know  him." 

AMESBURY,  27th  1st  Month,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  :  I  acknowledge  through  thee,  the 
invitation  of  the  standing  committee  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  to  be  present  at  a  special  meeting  of 
the  Society  for  the  purpose  of  paying  a  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  our  late  illustrious  associate,  Edward  Everett. 

It  is  a  matter  of  deep  regret  to  me  that  the  state  of  my 
health  will  not  permit  me  to-  be  with  you  on  an  occasion 
of  so  much  interest. 

It  is  most  fitting  that  the  members  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  Massachusetts  should  add  their  tribute  to  those 
which  have  been  already  offered  .by  all  sects,  parties,  and 
associations,  to  the  name  and  fame  of  their  late  asso 
ciate.  He  was  himself  a  maker  of  history,  and  part  and 
parcel  of  all  the  noble  charities  and  humanizing  influ 
ences  of  nis  State  and  time. 

When  the  grave  closed  over  him  who  added  new  lustre 
to  the  old  and  honored  name  of  Quincy,  all  eyes  instinc 
tively  turned  to  Edward  Everett  as  the  last  of  that  ven 
erated  class  of  patriotic  civilians  who,  outliving  all  dissent 
and  jealousy  and  party  prejudice,  held  their  reputation 


212  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

by  the  secure  tenure  of  the  universal  appreciation  of  its 
worth  as  a  common  treasure  of  the  republic.  It  is  not 
for  me  to  pronounce  his  eulogy.  Others,  better  qualified 
by  their  intimate  acquaintance  with  him,  have  done  and 
will  do  justice  to  his  learning,  eloquence,  varied  culture, 
and  social  virtues.  My  secluded  country  life  has  afforded 
me  few  opportunities  of  personal  intercourse  with  him, 
while  my  pronounced  radicalism,  on  the  great  question 
which  has  divided  popular  feeling,  rendered  our  political 
paths  widely  divergent.  Both  of  us  early  saw  the  danger 
which  threatened  the  country.  In  the  language  of  the 
prophet,  we  "  saw  the  sword  coming  upon  the  land,"  but 
while  he  believed  in  the  possibility  of  averting  it  by 
concession  and  compromise,  I,  on  the  contrary,  as  firmly 
believed  that  such  a  course  could  only  strengthen  and 
confirm  what  I  regarded  as  a  gigantic  conspiracy  against 
the  rights  and  liberties,  the-  union  and  the  life,  of  the 
nation. 

Eecent  events  have  certainly  not  tended  to  change  this 
belief  on  my  part ;  but  in  looking  over  the  past,  while  I 
see  little  or  nothing  to  retract  in  the  matter  of  opinion,  I 
am  saddened  by  the  reflection,  that  through  the  very 
intensity  of  my  convictions  I  may  have  done  injustice  to 
the  motives  of  those  with  whom  I  differed.  As  respects 
Edward  Everett,  it  seems  to  me  that  only  within  the  last 
four  years  I  have  truly  known  him. 

In  that  brief  period,  crowded  as  it  is  with  a  whole 
life-work  of  consecration  to  the  union,  freedom,  and 
glory  of  his  country,  he  not  only  commanded  respect 
and  reverence,  but  concentrated  upon  himself  in  a  most 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  213 

remarkable  degree  the  love  of  all  loyal  and  generous 
hearts.  We  have  seen,  in  these  years  of  trial,  very  great 
sacrifices  offered  upon  the  altar  of  patriotism  —  wealth, 
ease,  home-love,  life  itself.  But  Edward  Everett  did 
more  than  this ;  he  laid  on  that  altar  not  only  his  time, 
talents,  and  culture,  but  his  pride  of  opinion,  his  long- 
cherished  views  of  policy,  his  personal  and  political 
predilections  and  prejudices,  his  constitutional  fastidious 
ness  of  conservatism,  and  the  carefully  elaborated  sym 
metry  of  his  public  reputation.  With  a  rare  and  noble 
magnanimity,  he  met,  without  hesitation,  the  demand  of 
the  great  occasion.  Breaking  away  from  all  the  beset- 
ments  of  custom  and  association,  he  forgot  the  things  that 
are  behind,  and,  with  an  eye  single  to  present  duty, 
pressed  forward  towards  the  mark  of  the  high  calling  of 
Divine  Providence  in  the  events  of  our  time.  All  honor 
to  him !  If  we  mourn  that  he  is  now  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  poor  human  praise,  let  us  reverently  trust  that  he 
has  received  that  higher  plaudit:  "Well  done,  thou  good 
and  faithful  servant !  " 

When  I  last  met  him,  as  my  colleague  in  the  Electoral 
College  of  Massachusetts,  his  look  of  health  and  vigor 
seemed  to  promise  us  many  years  of  his  wisdom  and 
usefulness.  On  greeting  him  I  felt  impelled  to  express 
my  admiration  and  grateful  appreciation  of  his  patriotic 
labors ;  and  I  shall  never  forget  how  readily  and  grace 
fully  he  turned  attention  from  himself  to  the  great  cause 
in  which  we  had  a  common  interest,  and  expressed  his 
thankfulness  that  he  had  still  a  country  to  serve. 

To  keep  green  the  memory  of  such  a  man  is  at  once  a 


214  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

privilege  and  a  duty.  That  stainless  life  of  seventy  years 
is  a  priceless  legacy.  His  hands  were  pure.  The  shadow 
of  suspicion  never  fell  on  him.  If  he  erred  in  his 
opinions  (and  that  he  did  so,  he  had  the  Christian  grace 
and  courage  to  own),  no  selfish  interest  weighed  in  the 
scale  of  his  judgment  against  truth. 

As  our  thoughts  follow  him  to  his  last  resting-place, 
we  are  sadly  reminded  of  his  own  touching  lines,  written 
many  years  ago  at  Florence.  The  name  he  has  left 
behind  is  none  the  less  "  pure "  that  instead  of  being 
"  humble,"  as  he  then  anticipated,  it  is  on  the  lips  of 
grateful  millions,  and  written  ineffaceably  on  the  record 
of  his  country's  trial  and  triumph :  — 

"  Yet  not  for  me  when  I  shall  fall  asleep 
Shall  Santa  Croce's  lamps  their  vigils  keep; 
Beyond  the  main  in  Auburn's  quiet  shade, 
With  those  I  loved  and  love  my  couch  be  made ;  — 
Spring's  pendent  branches  o'er  the  hillock  wave, 
And  morning's  dewdrops  glisten  on  my  grave, 
While  Heaven's  great  arch  shall  rise  above  my  bed, 
When  Santa  Croce's  crumbles  on  her  dead  — 
Unknown -to  erring  or  to  suffering  fame, 
So  !•  may  leave  a  pure  though  humble  name  " 

Congratulating  the  Society  on  the  prospect  of  the  speedy 
consummation   of    the    great   objects   of  our    associate's 
labors — the  peace  and  permanent  union  of  our  country, — 
I  am  very  truly  thy  friend, 

JOHN  G.  WHITTIER. 

EGBERT  C.  WATERSTON,  BOSTON. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned. 


PROCEEDINGS 


THURSDAY-EVENING    CLUB 


V 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  THURSDAY-EVENING 

CLUB. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Thursday-Evening  Club,  January  26, 
1865,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Gardner  Brewer,  the  following 
remarks  were  made  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett,  by  Dr.  J.  Mason 
Warren  :  — 

GENTLEMEN  :  Since  the  last  meeting  of  this  Club, 
death  has  visited  us ;  and,  in  the  person  of  our  friend 
and  President,  has  called  away  the  first  citizen  of  our 
Commonwealth. 

Honored  alike  at  home  and  abroad,  his  loss  will  be 
felt  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  civilized 
world ;  and  his  name  will  justly  stand  among  the  most 
distinguished  of  all  ages. 

Again  and  again,  during  the  last  week,  has  his  eulogy 
been  pronounced,  in  terms  far  more  adequate  to  his 
merits  than  any  which  I  can  e^mploy ;  yet  here,  in  this 
circle  of  friends,  we  once  more  contemplate  him  in  the 
private  and  social  relation  which  he  bore  to  this  Associa 
tion. 

28 


218  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

The  peculiar  organization  of  our  Club  —  designed  (to 
use  the  words  of  Mr.  Everett,  as  spoken  here  on  a  former 
occasion)  to  bring  together  persons  of  different  professions 
and  pursuits,  to  converse  and  communicate  with  each 
other  on  the  scientific  improvements  of  the  day,  and 
other  topics  connected  with  social  culture  and  progress  ; 
thus  uniting  the  active  and  the  professional,  the  scien 
tific  and  business  classes  of  the  community  in  a  friendly 
circle — has  been"  successful,  in  no  common  degree,  in 
combining  refined  social  enjoyment  with  mutual  improve 
ment  in  knowledge. 

The  objects  of  such  an  Association  were  fully  appreci 
ated  by  Mr.  Everett ;  and,  from  the  very  commencement 
of  its  meetings,  his  po-lished  eloquence  and  rare  conversa 
tional  powers  have  greatly  contributed  to  its  success. 
Especially  to  be  remembered  are  the  noble  eulogies  in 
which  he  commemorated  the  removal  by  death  of  several 
prominent  members  of  our  Club ;  and  we  all  remember, 
with  gratitude  and  admiration,  the  splendid  tribute, 
which,  on  the  late  decease  of  Mr.  Frederic  Tudor,  he 
paid  to  the  memory  of  the  friend  at  whose  house,  only 
two  weeks  before,  we  had  been  so  hospitably  entertained. 
His  illustrations  of  literary  and  historical  subjects,  with 
which  he  constantly  favored  us,  are  among  the  happiest 
reminiscences  of  our  meetings  ;  always  felicitous  in  them 
selves,  and  often  doubly  impressive  as  emanating  from 
one  who  had  himself  been  an  actor  in  the  scenes  which 
he  described. 

The  first  meeting  of  this  season  was  held  at  his  house, 
on  the  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  our  pilgrim  fore- 


THE  THURSDAY-EVENING  CLUB.  219 

fathers  ;  and,  in  a  style  clear  and  masterly,  even  beyond 
his  usual  manner,  he  drew  a  new  and  vivid  picture  of 
that  humble  beginning  of  our  national  existence.  Only  a 
fortnight  ago  to-day,  I  received  a  note  from  him,  regret 
ting  much  that  he  was  unable,  owing  to  what  he  thought 
a  slight  illness,  to  be  present  at  the  meeting  of  that  even 
ing. 

Of  the  punctuality  with  which,  as  President  of  the 
Club,  he  opened  the  meetings,  you  are  all  aware;  for  he 
well  knew  the  value  of  time  when  measured  by  such  re 
sults  as  he  was  accustomed  to  attain. 

Feeling  myself  entirely  incapable  of  doing  justice  to 
an  occasion  like  this,  I  have  yet  been  unwilling  to  let 
the  evening  pass  without  adding  my  feeble  testimony 
to  his  entire  faithfulness  as  a  member  and  presiding 
officer  of  this  Association.  I  leave  to  a  gifted  mem 
ber  of  our  Club  the  grateful  task  of  giving  fit  expres 
sion  to  our  sense  of  the  great  loss  which  we  have  sus 
tained. 

Mr.  Edwin  P.  Whipple  said  :  — 

It  is  certainly  fit,  gentlemen,  that  the  sense  of  bereave 
ment  which  this  city  and  the  whole  nation  have  felt  in 
the  death  of  Mr.  Everett,  should  find  emphatic  expression 
in  the  Club  of  which  he  was  the  honored  President. 
Known  to  every  member  as  the  most  exquisitely  affable 
of  presiding  officers  ;  a  chairman  with  the  gracious  and 
graceful  manners  of  a  host;  ever  ready  to  listen  as  to 
speak ;  and  masking  the  eminence,  which  all  were  glad  to 
acknowledge,  in  that  bland  and  benignant  courtesv.  of 


220  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

which  all  were  made  to  feel  the  charm, — his  presence 
gave  a  peculiar  dignity  to  our  meetings  which  it  will  be 
impossible  to  replace,  and  impressed  on  all  of  us  the  con 
viction,  that,  to  his  other  gifts  and  accomplishments,  must 
be  added  the  distinction  of  being  the  most  accomplished 
gentleman  of  his  time.  Indeed,  it  is  probable,  that  in 
this  quality  of  high-bred  and  inbred  courtesy,  which  we 
all  have  such  good  cause  to  admire  and  to  remember, 
may  be  found  the  explanation  and  justification  of  some 
things  in  his  character  and  career  which  have  been  sub 
jected  to  adverse  and  acrimonious  criticism  ;  and,  in  the 
few  remarks  I  propose  to  make,  allow  me  to  throw  into 
relations  to  this  felicity  of  his  nature,  the  powers  and 
achievements  which  have  made  him  so  widely  famous, 
and,  what  is  better,  so  widely  mourned. 

Mr.  Everett  was  born  with  that  fineness  of  mental  and 
of  bodily  organization,  the  sensitiveness  of  which  is  hardly 
yet  thoroughly  tolerated  by  the  world  which  still  profits 
by  its  superiorities.  There  was  refinement  in  the  very 
substance  of  his  being ;  by  a  necessity  of  his  constitution 
he  disposed  everything  he  perceived  into  some  orderly 
relations  to  ideas  of  dignity  and  grace  ;  he  instinctively 
shunned  what  was  coarse,  discordant,  uncomely,  unbecom 
ing  ;  and  that  internal  world  of  thoughts,  sentiments,  and 
dispositions,  which  each  man  forms  or  re-forms  for  him 
self,  and  in  which  he  really  lives,  in  his  case  obeyed  the 
law  of  comeliness,  and  came  out  as  naturally  in  his  man 
ners  as  in  his  writings,  in  the  beautiful  urbanity  of  his 
behavior  as  in  the  cadenced  periods  of  his  eloquence. 
The  fascination  of  this  must  have  been  felt  even  in  his 


THE  THURSDAY-EVENING  CLUB.  221 

childhood,  —  for  he  was  an  orator  whose  infant  prattle 
attracted  an  audience ;  and  he  may  be  said  to  have  passed 
from  the  cradle  into  public  life.  To  a  swiftness  and 
accuracy  of  apprehension  which  made  study  the  most 
delightful  and  self-rewarding  of  tasks,  he  added  a  gen 
eral  brightness,  vigor,  and  poise  of  faculties,  which  gave 
premature  promise  of  the  reflection  and  judgment  which 
were  to  come.  By  some  sure  instinct,  the  friends  who 
seemed  combined  in  a  kindly  conspiracy  to  assist  and  to 
spoil  him,  must  have  felt  that  they  had  to  do  with  a 
nature  whose  innate  modesty  was  its  protection  from 
conceit,  and  whose  ambition  to  excel  was  but  one  form 
of  its  ambition  for  excellence.  The  fact  to  be  considered 
is,  that,  in  childhood  and  in  youth  as  in  manhood  and 
age,  there  was  something  in  him  which  irresistibly 
attracted  admiration  and  esteem,  and  made  men  desir 
ous  of  helping  him  on  in  the  path  his  genius  chose,  and 
to  the  goal  from  which  his  destiny  beckoned. 

It  will  be  impossible  Here  to  do  more  than  indicate  the 
steps  of  that  comprehensive  career,  so  full  of  distinction 
for  himself,  so  full  of  benefit  to  the  nation,  which  has 
been  for  the  past  ten  days  the  theme  of  so  many  eulogies : 
—  the  college  student,  bearing  away  the  highest  honors 
of  his  class ;  the  boy-preacher,  whose  *  pulpit  eloquence 
alternately  kindled  and  melted  men  of  maturest  years  ;  the 
Greek  Professor,  whose  knowledge  of  the  finest  and  most 
flexible  instrument  of  human  thought  extorted  the  admira 
tion  of  the  most  accomplished  of  all  the  translators  of 
Plato ;  the  fertile  Writer  and  wide-ranging  Critic,  whose 
familiarity  with  many  languages  only  added  to  the  energy 


222  MEMORIAL   OF    EDWARD   EVERETT. 

and  elegance  with  which  he  wielded  the  resources  of  his 
own ;  the  Representative  of  Middlesex,  whose  mastery  of 
the  minutest  details   of  political  business  was  not  more 
evident  than  his  ready  grasp  of  the  broader  principles  of 
political  science  ;  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  whose 
wise  and  able  administration  gave  a  new  impulse  to  the 
cause  of  education  and  to  some  of  the  most  important  of 
the  arts  of  peace  ;  the  Ambassador,  who  co-operated  with 
his  friend,  the  great  Secretary,  in  converting  the  provoca 
tions  to  what  would  have  been  one  of  the  most  calamitous 
of  all  wars  into  the  occasion  for  negotiating  one  of  the 
most  beneficent  of  all  treaties  ;  the  President  of  Harvard, 
bringing  back  to    his   Alma    Mater  the  culture    he   had 
received  from  her  increased  an  hundred  fold,  and  present 
ing  to  the   students   the  noble   example  of  a  scholarship 
which  was  always   teaching,  and  therefore  always  learn- 
,  ing ;  the   Secretary  of    State,  whose  brief   possession  of 
office  was  yet  sufficient  to  show  with  what  firmness  of 
purpose  he  could  uphold  American  honor,  and  with  what 
prodigality  of   information  he    could  expound  American 
rights  ;  the  Orator  of  all  "  occasions,"  scattering  through 
many  years,  and  from  a  hundred  platforms,  the  rich  stores 
of  his  varied  knowledge,   the   ripe   results   of  his  large 
experience,  and  t,he  animating  inspirations  of  his  fervid 
soul ;  the  Patriot,  who  ever  made  his  scholarship,  states 
manship,  and  eloquence  serviceable  and  subsidiary  to  the 
interest  and  glory,  of  his  country,  and  who,  when  would- 
be  parricides  lifted  their  daggers  to  stab  the  august  mother 
who  had  borne  them,  flung  himself,  witft  a   grand  superi 
ority  to  party  prejudices,  and  a  brave  disdain  of  conse- 


THE  THUKSDAY-EVENING  CLUB.  223 

quences  to  himself,  into  the  great  current  of  impassioned 
purpose  which  surged  up  from  the  nation's  heroic  heart ; 
the  Christian  philanthropist,  who,  through  a  long  life, 
had  been  the  object  of  no  insult  or  wrong  which  could 
rouse  in  him  the  fierce  desire  for  vengeance,  and  whose 
last  public  effort  was  a  magnanimous  plea  for  that  "  retal 
iation"  which  Christianity  both  allows  and  enjoins: — all 
these  claims  to  honor,  all  this  multiform  and  multiplied 
activity,  have  been  the  subjects  of  eager  and  emulous 
panegyric  ;  and  little  has  been  overlooked  in  the  loving 
and  grateful  survey. 

Such  a  career  implies  the  most  assiduous  self-culture  ; 
but  it  was  a  culture  free  from  the  fault  of  intellectual 
selfishness,  for  it  was  not  centred  in  itself,  but  pursued 
with  a  view  to  the  public  service ;  and  the  thirst  for 
acquisition  was  not  stronger  than  the  ardor  for  communi 
cation.  Such  a  career  also  implies  a  constant  state  of 
preparation  for  public  duties ;  but  only  by  those  whose 
ambition  is  to  get  office,  rather  than  to  get  qualified  for 
office,  will  this  peculiarity  be  sneeringly  imputed  to  a  love 
of  display.  Still,  the  vast  publicity  which  such  a  career 
rendered  inevitable  would  have  developed  in  him  some  of 
the  malignant  or  some  of  the  frivolous  vices  of  public  life, 
had  it  not  been  that  a  fine  modesty  tempered  his  constant 
sense  of  personal  efficiency, — -had  it  not  been  that  a  cer 
tain  shyness  at  the  core  of  his  being  made  it  impossible 
that  his  self-reliance  should  rush  rudely  out  in  any  of  the 
brazen  forms  of  self-assertion.  And  this  brings  me  back 
to  that  essential  gentlemanliness  of  nature,  which  pene 
trated  every  faculty,  and  lent  its  tone  to  every  expression 


224  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

of  our  departed  President.  This  gave  him  a  most  sensi 
tive  regard  for  the  rights  and  feelings  of  others,  and  this 
made  him  instinctively  expect  the  same  regard  for  his 
own.  He  guarded  with  an  almost  jealous  vigilance  the 
reserves  of  his  individuality,  and  resented  all  uncouth  or 
unwarranted  intrusion  into  these  sanctuaries  which  his 
dignity  shielded,  with  a  feeling  of  grieved  surprise.  In 
his  wide  converse  with  men,  even  in  the  contentions  of 
party,  his  mind  ever  moved  in  a  certain  ideal  region  of 
mutual  courtesy  and  respect.  It  was  to  be  anticipated, 
that,  in  the  rough  game  of  politics,  where  blows  are  com 
monly  given  and  received  with  equal  carelessness,  and 
where  mutual  charges  of  dishonesty  are  both  expected  and 
unheeded,  such  a  nature  as  Mr.  Everett's  should  sometimes 
suffer  exquisite  pain ;  that  his  nerves  should  quiver  in 
impatient  disgust  of  such  odious  publicity ;  that  he  should 
be  tempted  at  times  to  feel  that  the  inconsiderate  assailers 
of  his  character  — 

"  Made  it  seem  more  sweet  to  be 
The  little  life  of  bank  and  brier, 
The  bird  that  pipes  his  lone  desire, 
And  dies  unheard  within  his  tree — 

"  Than  he  who  warbles  long  and  loud, 
And  drops  at  Glory's  temple-gates  ; 
For  whom  the  carrion- vulture  waits 
To  tear  his  heart  before  the  crowd !  " 

In  this  sensitiveness,  refinement,  and  courtesy  of  nature, 
in  this  chivalrous  respect  for  other  minds,  and  tenderness 


THE   THURSDAY-EVENING  CLUB.  225 

for  other  hearts,  is  to  be  found  the  peculiarity  of  his  ora 
tory.  He  was  the  last  great  master  of  persuasive  elo 
quence.  The  circumstances  of  the  time  have  given  to 
our  public  speaking  an  aggressive  and  denouncing  char 
acter,  and  invective  has  contemptuously  cast  persuasion 
aside,  and  almost  reduced  it  to  the  condition  of  one  of  the 
lost  arts.  This  is  undoubtedly  a  great  evil,  for  invective 
commonly  dispenses  with  insight,  is  impotent  to  interpret 
what  it  assails,  and  fits  the  tongue  of  mediocrity  as  readily 
as  that  of  genius.  It  is  true  that  the  mightiest  exemplars 
of  eloquence  have  been  those  who  have  wielded  this  most 
terrific  weapon  in  the  armory  of  the  orator  with  the  most 
overwhelming  effect.  Demosthenes,  Chatham,  Burke, 
Mirabeau,  men  of  vivid  minds,  hot  hearts,  and  audacious 
wills,  have  made  themselves  the  terror  of  the  assemblies 
they  ruled,  by  their  power  of  uttering  those  brief  and 
dreadful  invectives,  which  "  appall  the  guilty  and  make 
bold  the  free,"  —  which  come  like  the  lightning,  irradiat 
ing  for  an  instant  what  in  an  instant  they  blast.  Perhaps 
the  noblest  spectacle  in  the  annals  of  eloquence  is  that  in 
which  the  mute  rage  and  despair  of  a  hundred  millions 
of  Asiatics  found,  in  the  assembly  responsible  for  their 
oppression,  fiery  utterance  from  the  intrepid  lips  of  Burke. 
But  such  men  are  rightly  examples  only  to  their  peers ; 
a  certain  autocracy  of  nature  is  the  animating  principle  of 
their  genius  ;  and,  when  they  are  copied  simply  by  the 
tongue,  they  are  likely  to  produce  shrews  rather  than 
sages.  Mr.  Everett  followed  the  bent  of  his  character  and 
the  law  of  his  mind  when  he  aimed  to  enter  into  genial 
relations  with  his  auditors,  and  to  associate  the  reception 


226  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

of  his  views  with  a  quickening  of  their  better  feelings, 
and  an  addition  to  their  self-respect.  Mount  Vernon,  the 
poor  of  East  Tennessee,  the  poor  of  Savannah,  attest  that 
his  greatest  triumphs  were  those  of  persuasion.  And  in 
recalling  the  tones  of  that  melodious  voice,  whose  words 
were  thus  works,  one  is  tempted  to  think  that  Force,  in 
eloquence,  is  the  mailed  giant  of  the  feudal  age,  who, 
assailing  under  a  storm  of  missiles  the  fortress  of  his 
adversary,  makes  the  tough  gates  shiver  under  the 
furiously  rapid  strokes  of  his  battle-axe,  and  enters  as 
a  victor ;  while  Persuasion,  "  with  his  garland  and  singing- 
robes  about  him,"  speaks  the  magical  word  which  makes 
the  gates  fly  open  of  their  own  accord,  and  enters  as  a 
guest. 

It  is  but  just,  gentlemen,  that  our  lamented  President, 
the  source  of  so  many  eulogies,  should  now  be  their 
therrfe ;  that  his  joy  in  recognizing  eminency  in  others 
should  be  met  by  a  glad  and  universal  recognition  of  it  in 
himself.  And,  certainly,  that  spotless  private  and  dis 
tinguished  public  life  could  have  closed  at  no  period  when 
the  heart  of  the  whole  loyal  nation  was  more  eager  to 
admire  the  genius  of  the  orator,  and  sound  the  praises 
of  the  patriot,  and  laud  the  virtues  of  the  man,  than  on 
the  day  when  his  mortal  frame,  beautiful  in  life  and 
beautiful  in  death,  was  followed  by  that  long  procession 
of  bereaved  citizens,  through  those  mourning  streets,  to 
that  consecrated  grave  ! 


THE   THURSDAY-EVENING   CLUB.  227 

Bishop  Eastburn  said  :  — 

I  ask  the  indulgence  of  my  fellow-members  of  the  Club 
for  a  few  moments,  while  I  add.  to  the  eloquent  words 
that  have  been  spoken,  my  own  humble  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  our  late  illustrious  President.  Mr.  Everett 
was  kind  enough  once  to  say  to  me,  that  he  wished  I 
would  sometimes  offer  something,  at  these  meetings,  as 
a  contribution  towards  the  instruction  of  those  who  should 
be  present.  My  reply  to  him  was,  that,  surrounded  as  I 
always  found  myself  here  by  so  much  science  and  wisdom, 
I  felt  disposed  rather  to  sit  as  a  silent  listener ;  and  I  can 
not  help  a  solemn  and  tender  feeling  in  the  reflection,  that 
when  now,  for  the  first  time,  I  am  complying  with  his 
request,  it  is  to  utter  a  few  words  of  remembrance  over 
his  recently  opened  grave. 

I  beg  to  call  your  attention,  gentlemen,  in  the  few 
words  I  shall  say,  to  one  or  two  points  in  Mr.  Everett's 
illustrious  career  which  have  not  been  dwelt  upon  by  the 
speakers  who  have  just  addressed  us,  —  and  which  seem 
to  me  to  present  him  in  an  aspect  eminently  worthy  of 
study  by  the  rising  youth  of  this  nation. 

I  very  often  thought,  during  the  life  of  our  distinguished 
President,  and  have  thought  more  especially  since  his 
death,  of  the  shining  example  he  has  set  of  the  assiduous 
cultivation  of  classical  learning,  as  the  chief  ingredient 
in  efficient  education,  and  as  the  great  means  of  giving 
superior  abilities  a  commanding  influence  over  men.  It 
was  this  that  gave  the  charm  to  Mr.  Everett's  oratory,  and 
carried  home  with  power  his  advocacy,  as  a  statesman,  of 


228  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

public  measures,  and  his  addresses  in  behalf  of  those 
efforts  for  the  relief  of  suffering  humanity  to  which  he 
devoted  the  closing  years  of  his  life.  He  seemed  to  enter 
fully  into  those  views  of  the  advantage  of  classical  pur 
suits  put  forth  by  the  great  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  a  discourse 
delivered  by  him  on  being  installed  as  Lord  Hector  of  the 
University  of  Glasgow,  and  which  I  remember  reading 
many  years  ago,  —  where  he  speaks  of  the  benefits  of 
classical,  as  distinguished  from  mere  mathematical  train 
ing  ;  and  shows  the  tendency-  of  the  latter  to  narrow  the 
mind,  and  to  indispose  it,  in  regard  to  a  certain  class  of 
subjects,  to  receive  any  other  than  a  species  of  evidence 
of  which  these  subjects  are  not  susceptible.  But,  besides 
this.  Sir  Robert  exhibited,  in  a  striking  manner,  the  in 
estimable  value  of  the  study  of  the  great  masters,  by  a 
review  of  the  course  of  Cicero,  whose  wonderful  oratory 
received  its  perfection,  and  its  power  of  swaying  men? 
from  his  cultivation  of  the  great  models  of  Grecian  poetry 
and  eloquence.  Now  Mr.  Everett,  as  I  have  said,  is  a 
great  example  in  this  respect,  and  ought  to  be  held  up  as 
such  before  the  young  men  of  this  land.  And,  if  he  shall 
be  generally  followed,  we  shall  hear  less,  in  the  pulpit, 
on  the  platform,  and  on  deliberative  floors,  of  that  rant 
and  bombast  which  pass  with  some  for  eloquence,  but 
which  are  as  offensive  to  good  taste  as  they  are  barren  of 
effect.  Mr.  Bullock,  in  his  address  at  Faneuil  Hall  on 
the  day  before  the  funeral  of  our  departed  President, 
dwelt  with  great  force  and  eloquence  upon  this  way  in 
which  Mr.  Everett  trained  himself  for  influence,  —  show 
ing  that  his  classical  finish  was  not  something  standing  by 


THE   THURSDAY-EVENING   CLUB.  229 

itself,  and  apart  from  his  distinction  as  a  statesman,  but 
was  the  main  element  in  creating  that  distinction,  and  in 
giving  him  the  power  which  he  possessed  in  his  signal 
public  career.  And,  gentlemen,  who  has  not  felt  the 
control  exerted  by  his  brilliant,  yet  restrained,  chastened, 
and  simple  diction?  His  oratory,  sparkling  with  orna 
ment  as  it  was,  was  at  the  same  time  a  perfect  specimen 
of  the  simplex  munditiis.  So  that,  whenever  we  heard 
him,  it  was  like  looking  at  some  noble  Grecian  temple, 
in  the  presence  of  which  the  eye  is  not  distracted  hither 
and  thither  by  tawdry  and  vulgar  details,  but  takes  in  at 
once  the  exquisite  whole,  and  is  charmed  with  the  beauty 
of  its  architectural  lines,  and  the  fair  symmetry  of  its  pro 
portions. 

But,  before  I  sit  down,  allow  me  to  detain  you  for  a  few 
moments  longer  by  reminding  you  of  another  feature  of 
Mr.  Everett's  career,  which  ought  to  be  impressed  on  the 
youth  of  this  country.  I  refer  to  the  fact,  that  this  great 
man  achieved  his  triumphs,  and  produced  the  results 
which  we  have  witnessed,  by  a  life  of  constant  and 
laborious  industry.  He  eminently  taught  by  his  example, 
that  they  who  would  either  attain  eminence,  or,  what  is 
infinitely  more  important,  would  urge  mankind  onward 
to  noble  purposes,  must  not  rely  upon  the  native  genius 
with  which  God  has  gifted  them,  but  must  discipline  their 
faculties  by  unremitted  labor.  My  first  sight  of  Mr. 
Everett  was  forty-three  years  ago,  when,  in  1822,  he  came 
to  New  York  to  deliver  the  Sermon  at  the  opening  of  a 
place  of  worship  of  his  denomination.  I  had  not  then 
entered  on  my  own  professional  course ;  and,  with  the 


230  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

curiosity  and  enthusiasm  of  a  youth  desirous  of  getting  a 
near  sight  of  so  eminent  a  man,  —  for  even  then  he  was 
eminent,  although  but  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  —  I  took 
a  position,  after  the  service  was  over,  in  the  porch,  in 
order  that  I  might  study  his  countenance  as  he  passed  out 
into  the  street;  —  and,  as  he  walked  by  me  with  his  slen 
der  form,  in  gown  and  band,  with  his  curling  auburn  hair, 
and  his  fine  contour  of  head  and  features,  I  thought  him 
the  most  attractive  specimen  of  radiant  classical  beauty  I 
had  ever  beheld  in  my  life.  Now,  gentlemen,  many  of  us 
have  been  witnesses  of  his  course  from  that  morning  of 
his  life  down  to  its  recent  close.  And  what  has  this 
course  been  ]  Has  it  been  an  indolent  resting  upon  the 
consciousness  of  great  natural  endowments  ]  No.  Has 
it  been  a  course  marked  by  fitful  and  impulsive  resort  to 
study?  No.  It  has  been  a  life  of  unintermitted  labor  — 
of  continual  storing  of  the  mind  —  of  daily  addition  to 
that  wealth  of  resources  which  was  to  be  the  instrument 
of  power.  I  have  touched  upon  this  feature  of  Mr. 
Everett's  distinguished  life,  because,  as  I  have  already 
observed,  I  think  it  should  be  placed  distinctly  before  the 
young  men  of  this  country ;  showing  them  for  their  in 
struction,  that  influence,  and  consequent  usefulness, 
come  not  from  intellect  alone,  however  marvellous,  but 
from  intellect  disciplined,  regulated,  and  made  efficient, 
by  the  toil  which  '  scorns  delights,  and  lives  laborious 
days/ 

I  thank  you  for  the  permission  to  present  these  thoughts 
to  your  attention ;  for  I  felt  that  I  could  not  refrain  from 
adding  my  humble  tribute  to  this  remarkable  man,- here 


THE   THURSDAY-EVENING   CLUB.  231 

in  one  of  those  assemblies  which  he  has  so  often  adorned 
with  his  presence,  and  charmed  with  the  contributions  of 
his  eloquent  lips. 

Dr.  A.  A.  Gould  said  :  - 

I  am  sure  that  each  one  of  us  here  associated  must  feel 
thankful  to  the  gentlemen  who  have  so  faithfully  and 
gratefully  delineated  the  exalted  character  of  our  late 
President,  and  especially  as  they  recall  to  us  his  interest 
in  our  meetings,  and  the  many  contributions  he  himself 
made  for  our  entertainment  and  edification.  The  break 
ing  out  of  the  rebellion  bore  so  heavily  on  his  health  and 
spirits,  that  he  expressed  some  misgivings  as  to  his  ability 
to  meet  with  us,  and  even  as  to  the  judiciousness  of  con 
tinuing  the  meetings  of  the  Club.  At  the  preliminary 
meeting  this  year,  however,  he  seemed  quite  enthusiastic 
in  view  of  our  coming  entertainments  ;  and  you  will  all 
of  you  attest  to  the  peculiar  geniality  with  which  he 
opened  our  winter's  gatherings  at  his  own  house. 

I  venture  to  propose,  what  I  have  no  doubt  will  find  an 
affirmative  response  from  every  one,  that  the  gentlemen 
who  have  addressed  us  be  requested  to  furnish  copies  of 
their  remarks,  to  be  transmitted  to  the  family  of  our  late 
President,  as  a  testimonial,  from  the  members  of  this 
Club,  of  their  deep  sense  of  indebtedness  to  him  for  his 
countenance,  and  his  numerous  instructive  and  entertain 
ing  contributions  at  their  meetings,  as  well  as  of  his 
exalted  private  worth  and  public  eminence. 


PROCEEDINGS 


NEW  ENGLAND    HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL    SOCIETY. 


I   Library. 


Of 


Calif, 


NEW    ENGLAND    HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL 

SOCIETY. 


A  special  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  New  England 
Historic-Genealogical  Society  was  held  on  Tuesday  afternoon, 
January  17,  1865,  to  take  notice  of  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Edward 
Everett,  a  member  of  the  Society  from  the  year  of  its  organization. 
William  B.  Towne  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  William  Keed 
Deane  was  appointed  secretary  pro  tempore. 

John  H.  Sheppard,  the  librarian,  introduced  the  subject  by  these 
remarks  :  — 

THE  sudden  death  of  the  Hon.  Edward  Everett  has 
called  us  together  not  merely  to  testify  our  deep  sorrow 
for  the  loss  of  a  most  influential  and  honored  member  of 
our  Society,  but,  with  other  numerous  institutions,  to  offer 
our  humble  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  a  very 
eminent  man  of  our  common  country.  A  great  light  has 
gone  down  in  our  political  heavens ;  a  star  of  the  first 
magnitude,  admired  at  home  and  among  foreign  nations, 
whose  brilliant  rays  of  science  and  eloquence  have  adorned 
this  Western  Hemisphere  and  made  a  luminous  path,  has 
set  forever.  Our  nation  has  met  with  an  irreparable  loss, 
and  particularly  in  these  dark  days  and  troublous  times  of 


236  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

an  unholy  rebellion,  when  hiS  counsels  and  voice  are  so 
much  needed.  His  death  has  cast  a  gloorn  over  society 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  It  will  be 
felt  in  the  Cabinet,  in  the  national  and  legislative  halls,  on 
the  battle-field,  and  everywhere ;  for  his  eloquence  was 
everywhere  heard,  as  it  were,  on  the  wings  of  the  press, 
speaking  with  the  voice  of  one  going  about  to  do  good  ; 
and  in  no  place  will  his  death  be  more  lamented  than  in 
a  sister  city,  to  relieve  which  the  very  last  hours  of  his 
exceedingly  busy  and  energetic  life  were  devoted  ;  yes,  the 
tears  of  Savannah  will  gush  forth  at  the  sad  news. 

Mr.  Everett  has  left  us  a  striking  example  that  old  age 
does  not  necessarily  impair  the  intellectual  powers,  when 
they  have  been  vigorously  kept  in  exercise.  In  his  seventy- 
first  year,  his  talents  were  bright  and  active  as  ever,  and 
his  judgment  and  imagination  retained  the  full  power  of 
his  earlier  days.  Pie  was,  indeed,  in  se  ipso  totus,  teres  atque 
rotundus  ;  there  was  a  wholeness,  a  polish,  and  a  round 
ness  in  his  character,  wherein  all  the  rough  edges  and 
sharp  angles  so  often  met  with,  even  among  distinguished 
men,  were  softened  into  a  pleasing  smoothness.  On  this 
melancholy  occasion  we  can  only  present  a  few  resolu 
tions,  echoing  the  words  of  universal  sorrow  ;  and  though 
they  cannot  add  to  the  fame  of  the  illustrious  dead,  yet 
they  may  evince  our  grief  and  sympathy. 

Mr.  Sheppard  then  offered  the  following  resolutions  :  - 

Resolved,  That,  in  the  death  of  Hon.  Edward  Everett,  this 
Society,  of  which  he  was  a  resident  member  for  nineteen 
years,  deplores  a  great  loss. 


NEW  ENGLAND  HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL  SOCIETY.        237 

Resolved,  That,  in  his  death,  literature  and  science  are 
called  to  mourn  the  departure  of  a  very  distinguished 
scholar  and  accomplished  writer,  whose  purity  and  ele 
gance  of  taste,  richness  of  imagination,  affluence  of  lan 
guage,  and  flowing,  fascinating  style,  would,  without  any 
other  mark  of  distinction  or  celebrity,  have  made  him 
an  honor  and  an  ornament  to  our  country. 

Resolved^  That,  in  his  death,  the  voice  of  a  most  eloquent 
man  is  silent,  —  a  voice  which  left  no  superior,  if,  indeed, 
it  did  an  equal  in  this  land,  and  which  was  ever  exerted  in 
the  cause  of  all  that  is  good  or  excellent,  pertaining  to  a 
nation's  welfare. 

Resolved^  That,  in  the  death  of  this  statesman  and  pa 
triot,  the  whole  nation  has  reason  to  weep  and  lament ;  for 
his  exalted  love  of  the  Union  gave  to  his  voice  and 
counsels  a  peculiar  importance  in  the  present  great  strug 
gle  to  preserve  our  nationality  from  destruction. 

Resolved^  That,  in  his  death,  we  deplore  the  loss  of  a 
citizen  of  most  exemplary  virtues,  indefatigable  industry, 
and  faithful  adherence  to  those  noble  principles  of  justice 
and  honor,  from  the  prevalence  only  of  which  a  nation 
can  become  great  and  glorious. 

Resolved)  That  we  respectfully  tender  our  sympathies  to 
the  bereaved  family. 

Resolved)  That,  in  testimony  of  our  veneration  of  the 
memory  of  the  deceased,  we  will  attend  his  funeral  on 
Thursday  next ;  and  also,  that  a  copy  of  these  Resolutions 
be  presented  to  his  family. 


238  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

After  remarks  by  Samuel  G.  Drake,  Rev.  Ellas  Nason,  John 
H.  Sheppard,  Frederic  Kidder,  John  Ward  Dean,  William  B. 
Trask,  William  Reed  Deane,  and  the  presiding  officer,  the  Resolu 
tions  were  unanimously  adopted. 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUARIAN    SOCIETY. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUA 
RIAN  SOCIETY, 

AT  A  SPECIAL  MEETING  HELD  AT  WORCESTER,  JAN.  17,  18G5. 


The  members  having  been  notified  of  the  death  of  their  former 
President,  Hon.  Edward  Everett,  assembled  in  their  Hall  at  two 
o'clock,  P.  M.  Hon.  Stephen  Salisbury,  the  President,  occupied 
the  chair.  On  account  of  the  illness  of  Hon.  Levi  Lincoln,  whose 
relations  with  Mr.  Everett  had  been  many  and  important,  the 
meeting  was  adjourned  to  Governor  Lincoln's  residence.  After  call 
ing  the  Society  to  order  the  President  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

BRETHREN  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY  :  — 

While  the  voices  of  our  people  express  their  sorrow 
and  deep  concern  that  one  of  our  most  exalted  citizens, 
who  swayed  the  opinions  and  destiny  of  our  country  from 
a  sphere  above  the  distractions  of  political  life  and  the 
envious  assaults  with  which  public  office  is  infested,  I 
have  invited  you  to  assemble  here,  not  to  forget  your 
duties  and  interests  as  citizens,  but  to  remember  that  this 
little  company  of  students  of  history  and  antiquarian  lore 
have  los,t  their  honored  Ex-President,  Edward  Everett, 
the  associate  who  had  the  greatest  present  ability  to  pro 
mote  the  objects  of  your  association.  The  eloquence 

31 


242  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

that  honored  the  obsequies  of  the  Nestor  of  your  Society, 
the  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  still  reechoes  in  your  printed 
proceedings,  meeting  a  cordial  reception  wherever  learn 
ing,  virtue,  and  a  laborious,  conscientious,  and  beneficent 
life  are  held  in  honor.  He  stood  among  us  in  the  majesty 
and  gathered  wisdom  of  94  years,  and  his  wise  counsels 
faltered  on  his  lips  when  he  heard  the  summons  for  which 
he  waited  and  hastened  away.  And  now  a  second  time 
the  solemn  warning  of  Providence  has  addressed  this  Soci 
ety,  and  from  the  clear  sky  in  which  no  threatening  cloud 
was  apparent,  another  distinguished  leader  of  this  frater 
nity  has  been  struck  down.  The  last  act  of  his  life  was 
to  plant  sweet  Christian  charity  among  the  sufferings  and 
crimes  of  wicked  and  treacherous  rebellion,  and  this  effort 
is  a  possible  cause  of  his  sudden,  and,  as  we  in  our  igno 
rance  and  impatience  are  prone  to  say,  his  untimely  de 
parture.  Let  us  rather  repeat  the  familiar  words  of  the 
old  Roman,  that  "  he  was  not  more  happy  in  the  glory  of 
his  life  than  in  the  occasion  of  his  death."  But  I  will 
not  detain  you  with  my  own  unsatisfactory  words  from 
the  utterance  of  thoughts  more  worthy  of  your  own  feel 
ings  and  of  the  occasion.  In  my  desire  to  forward  the 
deliberations  of  the  hour,  I  will  venture  to  offer  the  fol 
lowing  resolutions  :  — 

The  American  Antiquarian  Society,  being  convened  to 
take  notice  of  the  sudden  death  of  their  honored  Ex-Presi 
dent,  Edward  Everett,  LL.  D.,  who  was  for  nine  years 
Secretary  for  foreign  Correspondence,  and  after v^ards  for 
twelve  years  the  President,  it  was  thereupon 

Resolved,  That  we  deeply  sympathize  in  the  universal 


PROCEEDINGS    OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN   SOCIETY.          243 

grief  of  our  country,  that  a  patriot  has  been  taken  away 
in  the  fullest  strength  and  glory  of  his  beneficent  service, 
and  his  mantle  is  *not  seen  to  fall  on  any  successor. 

Resolved.,  That  with  our  lamentations  for  a  great  public 
loss,  we  will'  gratefully  consider  the  noble  works  which 
he  has  recently  performed  in  the  defence  of  our  govern 
ment  and  our  national  privileges  ;  in  the  vindication  of 
the  right  and  the  safety  of  free  institutions,  and  in  the 
thrice  repeated  lessons  of  charity  and  Christian  forgive 
ness,  enforced  by  his  own  unequalled  and  persuasive 
example. 

Resolved,  That  we  will  embalm  with  the  odor  of  our 
exalted  praise  the  memory  of  an  orator  who  always  car 
ried  his  admiring  listeners  to  higher  and  happier  planes 
of  thought ;  a  scholar  of  incessant  and  unwearied  labor, 
who  brought  up  his  deep-sought  treasures  with  a  fitness 
and  polish  that  adapted  them  to  the  handling  and  uses  of 
common  life,  and  a  man  who  exercised  his  great  powers 
for  useful  ends  with  a  kind  and  cautious  prudence  and 
constant  regard  for  Christian  purity. 

Resolved,  That  it  is  our  privilege  to  offer  a  chaplet  of 
honor  and  fraternal  grief  at  the  tomb  of  our  Ex-President, 
who  gave  to  this  Society  the  advantage  of  the  highest 
official  relations  for  twenty-one  years,  and  has  since  been 
a  fellow-worker  by  his  constant  contributions,  and  espe 
cially  by  his  frequent  and  successful  pursuit  of  the  objects 
for  which  this  association  was  formed. 

Resolved,  That  we  offer  to  the  children  of  our  respected 
associate  our  sincere  condolence,  and  commend  them  to 
the  highest  Source  of  consolation. 


244  MEMOKIAL  OF  EDWAED  EVERETT. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  Society,  we  will  express  our  respect 
by  attending  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Everett  on  Thursday  the 
19th  instant. 

Resolved,  That  the  President  of  this  Society  is  requested 
to  transmit  a  copy  of  the -above  resolutions  to  the  family 
of  our  deceased  associate. 

The  resolutions  having  been  seconded  by  Rev.  Seth  Sweetser, 
D.D.,  the  chair  was  addressed  by  Dr.  Sweetser,  Rev.  Dr.  Alonzo 
Hill,  Hon.  Isaac  Davis,  Hon.  Ira  M.  Barton,  Hon.  Levi  Lincoln, 
and  Hon.  Henry  Chapin ;  after  which  the  resolutions  were  unani 
mously  adopted. 

Rev.  Dr.  Sweetser  spoke  in  substance  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  It  seems  hardly  fitting  that  I  should 
occupy  a  moment  of  the  time  of  this  meeting.  My  rela 
tions  with  the  distinguished  ex-president  of  this  Society 
were  not  such  as  to  justify  it.  It  has  not  been  my  privi 
lege  to  come  within  the  circle  of  his  friendship,  or  to 
be  associated  with  him,  as  others  here  present  have  been, 
in  public  services.  It  would  be  presumptuous  in  me  to 
speak  of  a  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Everett.  And 
yet,  sir,  in  common  with  the  multitude  of  his  friends,  I 
have  felt  an  admiration  for  his  character  and  attainments. 

Since  the  intelligence  of  his  sudden  death  reached  and 
saddened  us,  my  thoughts  have  been  carried  back  to  the 
period  of  my  first  knowledge  of  him.  At  the  time  of 
my  entering  college  he  occupied  the  chair  of  Greek  Liter 
ature  in  Harvard  University,  and  I  well  remember  the 
enthusiasm  which  he  kindled,  and  the  admiration  with 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.          245 

which  he  inspired  those  who  listened  to  him,  and  how  his 
lecture-room  was  thronged ;  and  I  remember  also  what 
deep  regret  wras  felt  by  the  whole  college  at  his  with 
drawal  from  the  Professorship,  which  took  place  soon 
after. 

We  were  young  and  not  fitted  to  appreciate  the  capacity 
of  such  a  mind,  or  to  measure  the  fulness  and  richness, 
of  his  classical  culture,  or  the  beauty  and  art  with  which 
he  displayed  the  intellectual  and  literary  treasures  of 
that  land  of  beauty  and  art  which,  to  this  day,  has  never 
found  a  rival. 

It  was  the  universal  feeling  that  the  department  and 
the  college"  itself  had  lost  the  service  of  one  who,  by  his 
varied  attainments  and  scholarship,  was  eminently  fitted 
to  elevate  the  tone  of  classical  learning,  and  inspire  an 
interest  in  the  literature  of  Greece.  The  regret  was 
general,  and  I  cannot  refrain  from  saying,  that  with  me 
it  has  never  ceased.  But,  sir,  though  removed  to  the  stir 
and  agitating  scenes  of  public  life,  his  eminent  abilities 
were  not  lost.  I  will  not  speak  of  his  services  in  the 
important  positions  which  he  has  occupied  in  the  State 
and  the  Nation.  There  are  other  gentlemen  here  who 
are  better  able  to  do  that  than  I  am.  I  will  speak  only 
of  his  scholarship. 

He  was  always  a  scholar.  He  was  a  student  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  word.  He  never  failed  in  his  allegi 
ance  to  scholarship.  Under  all  circumstances  he  exhib 
ited  the  same  purity  and  richness,  the  same  grace  and 
elegance.  Everything  he  did  was  done  in  the  spirit  and 
tone  of  a  true  scholarship.  Whether  he  addressed  the 


246  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

senate  or  the  popular  assembly,  or  spoke  in  associations 
of  literary  and  scientific  men,  or  in  the  courts  of  law, 
there  was  the  same  completeness  and  accuracy.  What 
ever  was  possible  to  diligence  and  assiduous  culture  he 
attained.  Whatever  could  be  accumulated,  by  persistent 
research  he  acquired. 

We  have  not  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  upon  Mr. 
Everett  as  possessing  that  boldness  and  force  which  push 
out  beyond  the  ordinary  range  of  thought ;  we  have  not 
classed  him  with  the  minds  which  extend  the  boundaries 
of  human  knowledge.  He  was  not  of  that  adventurous 
wing  which  shoots  up  above  the  flight  and  sight  of  other 
men.  But  if  he  had  not  these  qualities  he  had  what  is 
perhaps  more  worthy  of  honor  and  admiration.  He  had 
the  power  of  acquiring  and  accumulating,  the  faculty 
of  retaining,  arranging,  and  using,  whatever  could  be 
gathered  up  by  unwearied  and  diversified  study.  He  was 
everything  that  labor  and  severe  training,  and  the  unfal 
tering  pursuit  of  his  object  could  make  him. 

Some  years  since  Mr.  Everett  was  invited,  as  gentle 
men  in  his  position  frequently  are,  to  address  the  Massa 
chusetts  Bible  Society  at  an  anniversary  meeting  in  Boston. 
I  heard  him  on  that  occasion.  He  spoke  from  the  plat 
form  as  other  gentlemen  did,  connecting  his  remarks  with 
those  of  previous  speakers,  giving  the  usual  appearance 
of  extemporaneousness  to  his  address. 

A  friend  asked  him  for  his  notes,  and  his  manuscript 
was,  I  apprehend,  an  index  to  all  his  performances.  It 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.          247 

was  carefully  written  and  elaborated ;  words  were  selected 
with  great  skill  and  discrimination ;  some  were  erased  and 
others  inserted  in  their  stead ;  and  this  exactness  in  the 
choice  of  language,  in  some  instances,  was  carried  to  the 
fourth  and  fifth  erasure.  This  was  one  of  the  sources  of 
his  success.  He  never  trusted  to  the  uncertainty  of  hasty 
unpremeditated  utterances.  *  He  finished  and  perfected 
with  accuracy  and  the  most"  studious  art.  He  spared  no 
toil  or  pains  in  preparation.  He  always  knew  his  subject, 
his  audience,  and  the  occasion.  It  was  in  this  way  that 
he  was  so  successful  as  a  public  speaker.  The  rich  stores 
of  his  classical  reading  and  the  treasures  of  literature  and 
science  were  at  his  disposal.  His  wide  cultivation,  and 
the  perfection  of  his  exercise  in  speech,  enabled  him  to 
express  in  the  most  persuasive  and  eloquent  form  the 
instructions  he  imparted. 

Now  that  he  is  no  more  with  us,  as  we  recall  his 
genius,  his  acquisitions,  his  diligence,  we  look  back  upon 
him  as  furnishing  to  us  and  coming  generations  an  unsur 
passed  model  in  the  art  of  eloquence. 

This  Society,  as  an  association  of  scholars,  the  univer 
sity  which  nurtured  him,  all  lovers  of  good  learning,  the 
whole  republic  of  letters,  the  Commonwealth  which  gave 
him  birth,  and  which  he  so  nobly  served,  and  the  whole 
country,  owe  to  him  a  debt  of  honor  and  of  gratitude. 

He  has  been  suddenly  taken  from  us.  It  is  not  for  us 
to  question  the  propriety  of  the  time  of  his  departure ; 
but  for  this  we  have  occasion  to  be  thankful,  that  he  was 
not  taken  until  he  had  rendered  a  service  to  his  country 
in  its  great  perils  which  endears  him  to  the  heart  of  every 


248  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

true  lover  of  the  Union,  and  which  will  prove  the  freshest 
and  most  enduring  brightness  in  the  chaplet  of  his  future 
renown. 

Eev.  Dr.  Hill  said  :  - 

• 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  Since  the  death  of  Mr.  Adams  in  the 
rotunda  of  our  Capitol,  in  Washington,  seventeen  years 
ago,  no  event  has  produced  -so  profound  a  sensation  as 
the  sudden  demise  of  the  revered  ex-president  of  this 
Society.  When  Mr.  Webster  died  he  had  lingered  ;  and 
his  death  was  not  unexpected  nor  unprepared  for.  But 
Mr.  Everett  passed  in  a  moment  from  the  midst  of  the 
activities  of  life,  while  his  mind  was  teeming  with  mighty 
projects  of  usefulness,  while  his  last  noble  speech  in 
behalf  of  forgiveness  and  charity  and  the  pacification  of 
the  country,  was  still  throbbing  on  the  telegraph  wires 
and  thrilling  the  heart  of  a  continent. 

I  did  not  know  him  intimately,  —  perhaps  few  did. 
But  my  memory  goes  far  back  in  his  personal  history ;  I 
have  followed  him  with  admiration  and  been  held  captive 
by  the  power  of  his  soft  persuasion,  with  thousands  of 
others,  to  the  last.  I  have  heard  him  in  the  pulpit ;  and 
his  youthful  figure,  cut  with  classical  elegance  and  set 
forth  with  the  high  polish  of  art,  as  he  stood  in  the  desk 
of  the  college  chapel,  is  still  before  me  ;  and  whole  pas 
sages  of  his  sermons  on  those  occasions,  fascinating  with 
their  splendid  rhetoric  and  pronounced  with  inimitable 
grace  of  utterance,  are  still  fresh  in  my  recollection.  I 
was  among  the  privileged  few  who  heard  his  brilliant 
course  of  lectures  on  Greek  Literature  on  his  return  from 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.          249 

Athens,  whose  delivery  marked  for  us  a  new  era  in  our 
mental  history.  I  have  listened  to  most,  and  have  read 
all  of  his  more  elaborate  orations,  delivered  at  different 
periods,  on  almost  every  variety  of  subjects,  and  have 
always  come  away  from  the  hearing  or  the  reading  his 
debtor.  I  have  been  present  for  several  •  years  at  the 
meetings  of  literary  and  benevolent  associations  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  and  have  noticed  his  fidelity,  the 
readiness  with  which  he  consecrated  his  great  powers  to 
their  welfare,  and  the  intelligence  and  earnest  devotion 
with  which  he  attended  to  the  little  details  connected 
with  their  prosperity.  I  wish  to  say  a^few  words  here 
as  a  grateful  tribute  to  his  memory. 

Many  years  ago,  when  he  was  a  very  young  man,  he 
was  addressing  an  assembly  of  Boston  merchants  whom 
he  had  invited  to  meet  him  at  Faneuil  Hall,  and  whom  he 
was  endeavoring  to  persuade  to  purchase  for  the  use  of 
Harvard  College,  a  work  of  art,  the  Panorama  of  Athens, 
I  think  it  was,  which  had  jusj  arrived  from  Greece.  He 
was  showing  the  value  of  art  in  a  young  community  like 
our  own,  and  in  the  course  of  his  argument  put  the 
question  into  the  mouth  of  his  hearers,  "  What  is  it  good 
for  VI  shall  never  forget  the  force  of  manner  and  expres 
sion  which  he  threw  into  his  reply,  put  also  into  the  form 
of  a  question,  "  What  is  anything  good  for  except  as  it 
refines  and  ennobles  and  brings  out  the  divine  in  man  ? " 
Here  we  have  the  key-note  which  guided,  the  undertone 
which  sounded  through  his  whole  subsequent  life.  In  all 
his  speeches,  written  and  unwritten,  in  all  the  works  that 
he  did  through  a  period  of  fifty  years,  how  have  they 

32 


250  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

conspired  for  the  uplifting  and  refining  of  our  nature. 
Point  to  the  word,  if  you  can,  employed  to  disguise  the 
truth,  or  suggest  the  thought  which  one  might  not 
breathe  into  the  ears  of  saintly  purity.  Put  your  finger, 
you  cannot,  upon  the  passage  set  round  with  the  spears 
and  darts  of  detraction,  serving  to  arouse  a  base  passion 
and  to  make  us  less  humane.  How  many  will  you  find, 
all  scattered  through  his  living  example  and  published 
works,  which  are  a  noble  appeal  to  our  higher  sentiments, 
and  make  us  love  with  a  deeper  sensibility  whatever  is 
beautiful  in  nature  and  refined  in  life.  Early  moulded  by 
the  models  of  Grecian  art  and  culture,  familiar  with  the 
best  thoughts  and  noblest  sentiments  of  all  ages,  sparing 
no  labor  to  perfect  what  he  undertook  to  say  and  do,  he 
poured  forth  his  honeyed  accents,  lifted  up,  electrified,  and 
melted  us  by  the  gorgeous  imagery  and  beautiful  dra 
pery  with  which  he  clothed  his  thought  —  but  touched  us 
the  more  deeply  because  of  this  undertone  of  high  Chris 
tian  sentiment  which  breathed,  and  this  coloring  of  Chris 
tian  faith  and  hope  which  glowed,  through  his  best 
productions. 

How  broad,  how  varied,  were  his  accomplishments. 
He  seems  to  have  studied  every  subject,  and  gone  to  its 
depths.  Head  his  lectures  before  the  Mechanics',  the  Mer 
cantile,  and  Library  Associations,  his  addresses  before 
Agricultural  Societies,  and  his  debates  in  Congress.  He 
goes  into  the  details  of  science,  the  theory  of  trade,  the 
methods  of  raising  crops,  and  the  ways  of  public  policy, 
as  if  each  profession  had  been  his  especial  pursuit  and  he 
had  devoted  himself  to  nothing  else.  He  shows  a  sur- 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN   SOCIETY.          251 

prising  familiarity  with  every  department  of  knowledge, 
and  speaks  of  its  practical  wrorking  as  if  he  had  been 
engaged  in  the  occupation  all  his  life.  But  he  does  more 
than  this.  He  goes  into  the  soul  of  the  thing,  and  shows 
how  the  mechanic  and  the  merchant,  the  farmer  and  legis 
lator,  may  transform  their  callings  into  liberal  pursuits  and 
make  them  tributary  to  the  individual  growth  and  the 
moral  and  spiritual  elevation  of  the  community. 

So  also  in  the  refined  integrity  of  his  life,  his  sympathy 
with  the  fine  arts,  and  the  devotion  of  his  rich  accomplish 
ments  to  the  ornament  of  the  Republic,  we  see  the  same 
great  aim  throughout.  He  was  the  friend  of  Canova, 
and  the  intimate  of  some  of  the  most  gifted  of  the  modern 
poets.  He  was  practised  in  modern  languages  so  that  he 
could  talk  with  the  ambassadors  at  the  court  of  St.  James, 
each  in  his  own  tongue.  He  had  carefully  studied  in  the 
galleries  of  art,  and  in  the  associations  in  London  com 
manded,  it  is  said,  high  respect  for  the  accuracy  of  his 
judgment  and  taste,  and  was  an  authority  there  among  the 
lovers  of  painting  and  sculpture.  But  here  he  was  true  too 
to  the  early  expressed  purpose  of  his  life.  He  was  no 
hermit.  He  did  not  keep  his  high  gifts  for  his  own  uses 
and  enjoyment ;  but  spread  them  abroad,  as  a  sweet  fra 
grance,  for  all  who  would  receive  them.  No  man  was 
summoned  so  often  as  he,  to  speak  to  his  fellow- citizens 
—  to  interpret  the  meaning  of  great  historical  events  and 
mould  them  to  the  time ;  and  no  mas.  could  do  more  to 
make  them  memorable  by  the  vividness  of  his  imagina 
tion  and  the  affluence  of  his  speech.  Though  he  spoke 
so  often,  to  hear  Mr.  Everett  was  an  era  in  one's  life.1* 


252  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Pictures  were  drawn  upon  the  tablets  of  the  heart,  never 
to  be  erased ;  for  with  him  eloquence  was  a  divine 
endowment,  and  must  be  used  only  to  refine,  elevate,  and 
perfect  the  soul  of  man. 

For,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  I  do  not  believe  he 
ever  forgot  his  accountability  for  his  great  gifts,  or  relaxed 
in  his  reverence  for  all  that  is  Christian  in  belief  and 
spiritual  in  life  and  hope.  He  seemed  to  me  to  lean  more 
than  most  great  men  for  personal  guidance  and  support 
on  the  influence  of  his  traditionary  faith.  Early  attracted 
by  the  fascination  and  fervid  friendship  of  young  Buck- 
minster,  whose  successor  he  was,  at  the  unripe  age  of 
nineteen,  over  the  most  influential  congregation  in  Boston, 
he  never  forgot  his  first  love,  nor  wavered  in  his  attach 
ment  to  Christian  institutions  and  the  means  of  Christian 
culture ;  but  through  a  varied  experience  at  home  and 
abroad,  under  circumstances  of  great  temptation,  remained 
true  to  his  early  convictions  —  showing  by  the  consistency 
and  integrity  of  his  daily  walk  the  depth  of  those  convic 
tions.  When  I  have  preached  in  the  church  in  which  he 
worshipped,  he  was  always  there,  forenoon  and  afternoon 
—  devout,  reverential,  and  bending  his  active  and  affluent 
mind  to  a  part  in  the  services.  He  did  not,  1  thought,  oc 
cupy  his  pew  merely  for  example's  sake  ;  but  sat  lowly,  as 
needing  help  like  the  rest  of  us  —  composed  in  prayer, 
and  when  the  lesson  of  the  day  was  read  —  true  also  to 
his  scholarly  habits,  -following  it  in  the  Greek  Testament, 
which  he  kept  by  his  side.  This  may  seem  a  small  mat 
ter,  but  it  means  much.  For  when  I  remember  how  often 
§reat  scholars,  surrounded  by  their  rich  libraries,  attract- 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN   SOCIETY.          253 

ed  by  the  fascination  of  letters,  and  borne  on  the  tide  of 
popularity  and  abundant  success,  sufficient  of  themselves, 
have  been  allured  away  from  the  highest  objects  of  inter 
est,  I  can  honor  the  illustrious  man,  who  remained  stead 
fast  to  the  offices  of  the  Church,  and  confessed  his 
need  of  ministrations  which  have  been  the  guide  and 
solace  of  those  who  possessed  no  book  but  one  ;  —  minis 
trations  which  have  done  so  much  for  the  good  order, 
moral  and  spiritual  strength  of  New  England,  and  made 
her  what  she  is.  Mr.  Everett  was  never  seduced  by  his 
classical  studies  nor  the  philosophies  of  the  day  from  the 
deeper  philosophy  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but  by  the 
greatness  of  the  contrast  could  all  the  more  appreciate 
the  unrivalled  beauty  and  grandeur  of  his  simplest  utter 
ances  ;  and  so  when  the  cry  of  woe  came  up  from  the 
bosom  of'  those  who  had  just  now  been  our  enemies,  and 
a  plea  must  be  made  for  forgiveness  and  charity,  he  found 
no  fitting  language  in  heathen  poet  or  orator  —  but 
repeated  with  a  pathos  and  power  which  moved  the  vast 
assembly  who  heard,  the  words  in  which  the  great  apostle 
has  embodied  the  very  soul  of  his  Master,  "  If  thine 
enemy  hunger  feed  him.  If  he  thirst  give  him  drink." 
Eor  the  last  time  he  spoke  in  the  name  and  spirit  of 
Christ,  and  never  had  he  spoken  so  persuasively. 

But  he  has  gone.  In  the  silence  of  the  night,  before 
the  Sabbath  dawned,  the  great  soul,  that  never  tired 
before,  went  to  its  re*st.  And  you  have  done  well,  Mr. 
President,  in  your  admirable  remarks,  to  quote  in  their 
English  dress  the  fitting  words  of  Tacitus,  with  whom  he 
was  so  familiar  —  "Felix  non  vitce  tantum  daritate  sed 


254  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

etiam  opportunitate  mortis.1"  He  is  gone,  the  finished 
sqholar,  the  consummate  orator,  the  consistent  Christian; 
and  he  should  sleep  to-day,  as  Prescott,  dying,  expressed  a 
wish  to  do  in  his,  in  that  magnificent  library  —  which  has 
been  the  scene  of  his  vigils,  his  labors,  and  his  successes. 
To-day,  lying  in  his  sacred  repose,  he  should  be  surround 
ed  by  the  noble  array  of  scholars,  artists,  and  poets,  who, 
having  inspired  him  in  life,  might  look  down  upon  him 
from  the  alcoves  and  walls  of  that  library,  in  the  stillness 
of  death.  To-morrow,  friends  will  tenderly  bear  him  to 
Mount  Auburn,  where  his  masters  and  early  companions 
have  gone  before,  and  where  living  scholars  and  a  grate 
ful  people  will  go  to  mourn  over  and  catch  inspiration 
from  the  foremost  man  that  has  been  among  us. 

4t 

Hon.  Isaac  Davis  spoke  thus  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  The  sad  and  solemn  dispensation  of 
Divine  Providence,  which  has  so  suddenly  removed  from 
earth  to  his  eternal  home  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments 
of  our  race,  touches  the  sensibilities  and  awakens  the 
sympathies  of  scholars  and  statesmen,  poets  and  orators, 
patriots  and  freemen,  —  of  all  who  read  or  speak  the 
English  tongue. 

Scarcely  has  the  tomb  closed  over  the  remains  of  one  of 
the  most  gifted  sons  of  Massachusetts,  who  was  a  member 
of  this  Society,  when  it  again  opens  to  receive  a  ripe 
scholar,  a  distinguished  orator,  a  devoted  patriot  and 
Christian  gentleman,  who  was  for  many  years  its  Presi 
dent. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.          255 

Few  men  of  our  country  —  very  few  —  will  fill  so  large 
a  space  in  the  history  of  the  nineteenth  century  as  Edward 
Everett.  At  the  early  age  of  seventeen  he  was  graduated 
at  Harvard  University  with  its  highest  honors  ;  and  first 
turning  his  attention  to  theology,  became  pastor  of  one 
of  the  largest  churches  in  Boston.  The  Professorship  of 
Greek  Literature  having  been  tendered  to  him  by  his 
Alma  Mater,  with  the  privilege  of  visiting  Europe  to 
qualify  himself  more  fully  for  the  office,  he  resigned  his 
pastorate  at  the  age  of  twenty  and  repaired  to  the  Uni 
versity  of  Gottingen,  where  for  two  years  he  assiduously 
pursued  the  studies  connected  with  the  duties  of  the  new 
office.  He  afterwards  visited  Greece  and  other  parts  of 
Europe  ;  and  returning  to  America  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
five  entered  upon  the  labors  of  his  professorship.  He 
soon  became  editor  of  the  North  American  Review, 
which  under  his  care  attained  to  its  highest  reputation 
and  widest  circulation  ;  while  his  lectures  on  Greek  lit 
erature  and  art  gave  him  great  distinction  as  a  profound 
and  finished  scholar.  In  1824,  before  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  Society  of  the  University,  he  commenced  that 
series  of  public  addresses  on  various  subjects  which  have 
given  him  such  an  exalted  fame  as  an  orator.  He  was 
elected  to  Congress  by  the  unsolicited  votes  of  the  citi 
zens  of  Middlesex  in  the  same  year  ;  and  for  ten  years 
was  a  working  member,  prominent  among  the  distin 
guished  men,  of  that  body.  He  retired  from  Congress, 
and  for  four  successive  years  was  elected  Governor  of 
Massachusetts.  In  1841,  he  was  appointed  Minister  to 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  where  he  remained  four  years. 


256  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

While  in  England  his  accomplishments  became  known  to 
statesmen  and  scholars.  They  were  recognized  by  the 
Universities  of  Cambridge  and  Oxford ;  each  conferring 
upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  D.  C.  L.,  a  distinction 
which,  I  believe,  had  been  conferred  by  them  on  no  other 
American  citizen.  In  1846,  he  was  chosen  President  of 
Harvard  University,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  discharge 
of  the  delicate  and  responsible  duties  of  that  office  till  his 
resignation  in  1849.  On  the  death  of  Mr.  Webster  he 
was  appointed  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States. 
On  a  change  of  Administration  he  took  his  seat  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  as  successor  to  Hon.  John 
Davis,  who  had  succeeded  him  as  President  of  this  Soci 
ety.  In  1854,  he  was  compelled  by  the  state  of  his 
health  to  retire  to  private  life.  In  his  orations  on  the 
life  and  character  of  Washington  subsequently  delivered, 
he  faithfully  and  eloquently  warned  the  citizens  of  the 
Eepublic  against  secession  or  disunion  and  all  their  at 
tendant  consequences. 

These  are  some  of  the  incidents  in  the  life  of  this  great 
man.  Edward  Everett  is  dead  ;  but  the  influence  of  his 
genius  and  industry  will  live  in  all  coming  generations  till 
the  last  succession  of  earth's  inhabitants. 

Judge  Barton  said  :  — 

I  desire  Mr.  President,  merely  to  allude  to  my  early 
recollections  of  Mr.  Everett,  as  illustrating  the  justness  of 
the  remarks  of  the  llev.  Drs.  Sweetser  and  Hill,  as  to  his 
prominent  characteristics  as  a  scholar  and  a  man.  Those 


PROCEEDINGS    OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.  257 

recollections  are  amongst  my  most  cherished  memories, 
running  back  to  the  year  1820,  when  I  entered  the  Law 
School  of  Harvard  University. 

Mr.  Everett  had  then  just  returned  from  his  foreign 
travels,  and  a  residence  at  one  of  the  German  Universities, 
preparatory  to  entering  upon  his  duties  as  Professor  of 
Greek  literature.  He  had  previously  ministered  with 
great  distinction  in  the  Brattle  Street  Church,  Boston;  and 
I  first  saw  him  as  the  officiating  clergyman  in  the  College 
Chapel  at  Cambridge.  It  was  said  to  be  his  first  appear 
ance  there  after  his  return  home.  And  now,  after  a  lapse 
of  more  than  forty  years,  it  may  be  of  some  interest  to  note, 
that  the  text  from  which  he  discoursed  was  the  familiar 
and  beautiful  scripture,  "  The  lines  have  fallen  unto  us 
in  pleasant  places,"  &c.  The  discourse  demonstrated, 
that  while  his  taste  had  received  the  highest  culture, 
his  love  for  his  country  had  not,  as  is  sometimes  the  case, 
been  impaired  by  absence  from  it. 

The  lectures  of  Mr.  Everett  on  Greek  literature,  and  of 
Professor  Ticknor  on  Spanish  and  French  literature,  were 
in  progress ;  and  by  a  wise  regulation  of  the  College,  the 
members  of  the  Law  School,  as  resident  graduates,  were 
allowed  to  attend  them.  They  were  of  the  purest  models 
of  English  composition  ;  and  those  who  failed  to  improve 
from  such  exemplars,  must  have  been  wanting  either  in 
taste  or  attention. 

Mr.  Everett,  though  then  a  young  man,  but  two  or 
three  years  my  senior,  had  already  acquired  a  literary  dis 
tinction  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  ordinary  aspiration  of 
scholars,  as  a  reward  for  the  literary  labors  of  a  whole 

33 


258  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

life.  Nevertheless,  he  continued  to  be  a  most  diligent 
student.  By  a  pleasant  and  noteworthy  coincidence,  he 
had  for  his  study  one  of  the  spacious  drawing  rooms  of 
the  Craigie  House,  occupied  by  General  Washington, 
while  in  Cambridge,  as  his  Head-Quarters.  Decorated 
with  a  large  painting  of  the  Colosseum  at  Rome,  and 
other  illustrations  of  aifcient  works  of  art.  When  he 
came  from  his  study,  Mr.  Everett  was  always  prepared 
for  the  occasion  on  which  he  was  to  appear,  whether 
before  the. students  or  the  public.  He  never  trusted  to 
the  inspiration  of  the  moment  for  his  thoughts  or  words. 
And  yet  his  performances  never  appeared  finical  nor  con 
strained.  He  had  thus  early  acquired  that  most  desirable 
literary  accomplishment,  "  the  art  of  concealing  art." 
We  all  know  the  great  care  and  labor  he  bestowed  on  his 
public  literary  performances  in  after  life,  as  graphically 
described  by  Dr.  Sweetser.  Yet  his  auditors  would  never 
suspect  the  facf ;  but  would  take  all  he  eloquently  said  as 
the  instant  promptings  of  his  subject  and  the  occasion. 

The  studious  and  somewhat  retired  habits  of  Mr. 
Everett,  and  perhaps  his  superior  position  amongst  his 
fellows,  sometimes  led  to  the  remark  that  he  was  unsocial 
in  his  feelings.  If  by  that  was  meant  that  he  was  cour 
teous  and  dignified  in  his  manners,  and  that  he  had  little 
time  or  taste  for  mere  commonplace  conversation,  such 
remark  had  the  semblance  of  truth.  But  if  anything 
more  was  meant,  the  assertion  was  the  reverse  of  the 
truth. 

At  the  period  referred  to,  there  was  a  club  of  junior 
officers   of    the  College   and   resident  graduates,   for  irn- 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.  259 

provement  in  elocution,  and  to  socialize  the  young  men, 
many  of  whom  came  together  as  strangers  from  different 
parts  of  the  country.  Mr.  Everett  was  the  originator  and 
inspiring  genius  of  the  Association.  On  one  occasion  he 
recited,  with  amusing  effect,  the  humorous  dialogue  found 
in  the  schoolbooks  of  the  day,  between  three  travellers, 
on  the  color  of  the  chameleon  :  — 

"  Oft  has  it  been  my  lot  to  mark 
A  proud,  conceited,  talking  spark, 
Returning -from  his  finished  tour,"  &c. 

The  circumstance  of  his  own  recent  return  from  a  four 
or  five  years'  tour,  with  his  effective  recital  of  the  dia 
logue,  put  the  Association  on  very  good  terms  with  the 
speaker,  and  with  each  other.  And  I  am  not  aware  that 
any  one  afterwards  imputed  to  our  distinguished  associate 
any  improper  reserve  or  austerity  of  manners. 

With  extraordinary  natural  talents,  and  such  habits  of 
study,  added  to  a  fine  person  and  melodious  voice,  the 
friends  of  Mr.  Everett  might  safely  predict  for  him  a 
successful  and  brilliant  literary  career.  They  were  not 
disappointed.  He  soon  became  the  learned  man  of  the 
country.  To  say  nothing  of  his  public  services,  properly 
so  called,  by  his  connection  and  cooperation  with  numer 
ous  religious,  charitable,  and  literary  institutions,  at  home 
and  abroad,  he  conferred  upon  his  country  an  honor, 
equalled  only  by  the  distinction  he  secured  to  himself. 

It  was  a  wise  choice  when  Mr.  Everett  was  elected  the 
presiding  officer  of  this  Society.  For  though  not  devoted 
to  American  antiquities  as  a  specialty,  he  was  distin- 


260  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

guished  for  his  antiquarian  knowledge,  as  it  related  to 
both  the  old  and  the  new  world.  And  he  brought  to  our 
aid,  not  merely  his  great  reputation  as  a  general  scholar, 
but  much  learning  appropriate  to  our  peculiar  department 
of  literature. 

Mr.  President,  one  reason  for  the  success  of  Mr. 
Everett  in  performing  the  duties  of  life,  should  not  be 
forgotten.  It  was  his  early  education  in  Christian  theol 
ogy.  Small  and  unprincipled  men,  for  their  own  selfish 
purposes,  sometimes  attempted  his  disparagement,  by 
reflecting  upon  his  original  profession  as  a  clergyman. 
But  with  men  of  better  minds,  it  was  a  ground  for  their 
respect  and  confidence.  And  while  the  best  friends  of 
Mr.  Everett  would  not  claim  for  him  what  is  more  than 
human,  an  entire  immunity  from  errors  of  judgment, 
they  may  safely  challenge  the  proof  of  an  act  of  his  life, 
in  violation  of  the  principles  of  Christian  ethics,  which 
he  always  and  everywhere  eloquently  taught  to  others. 

The  controlling  influence  of  religious  and  Christian 
motives  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Everett,  has  been  strikingly 
manifested  in  the  last  years  of  his  life.  What  but  such 
motives  could  induce  the  gerat  labor  of  saving  and  dedi 
cating  to  the  memory  of  the  father  of  his  country,  that 
most  befitting  monument,  the  acres  he  so  much  cherished 
in  life  at  Mount  Vernon  ?  What  but  such  motives  could 
so  deeply  move  his  sympathies  for  his  suffering  country 
men  of  East  Tennessee  1  And  what  motives  but  those 
flowing  from  a  Christian  faith,  strong  enough  to  inspire 
the  eloquent  lips  of  a  dying  man,  to  plead  for  the  suffer 
ers  of  Savannah  1  Thus,  cementing  with  a  charity  that 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.          261 

never  faileth,  the  Union  restored  by  our  victorious  arms  f 
and  illustrating  the  brave  and  beautiful  sentiment  uttered 
by  Mr.  Everett  while  yet  a  young  man,  that  "  nothing  is 
too  great  to  be  done  which  is  founded  on  truth  and 
justice,  and  which  is  pursued  with  the  meek  and  gentle 
spirit  of  Christian  love."  * 

Hon.  Levi  Lincoln  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  The  startling  announcement  of  the 
death  of  the  Hon.  Edward  Everett  has  occasioned 
a  shock  to  this  community,  from  which  those  who  have 
known  him  long  and  well  have  not  yet  been  able  to 
recover  the  calmness  of  entire  self-possession.  To  such 
as  were  his  seniors  in  years,  and  have,  at  any  time,  been 
the  companions  "of  his  social  hours,  or  his  associates  in 
offices  of  public  service,  the  event  comes  with  impressive 
admonition  of  the  limitation  of  all  human  powers,  and  the 
transitoriness  of  opportunities  for  earthly  usefulness  and 
distinction.  But  a  few  days  since,  I  met  him,  as  an 
associate  in  the  presidential  electoral  college  of  Massa 
chusetts,  at  that  time  strong  at  least  in  his  usual  health, 
earnest  as  ever  in  patriotic  duty,  confident  in  anticipation 
of  triumph  and  glory  to  the  struggling  nation,  and 
buoyant  with  the  hope  that  he  should  himself  live  to 
rejoice  in  the  restored  Union  of  the  states,  and  the  uni 
versal  freedom,  peace,  and  prosperity  of  the  people. 
Never  was  he  more  genial  in  himself,  or  more  interest 
ing  and  instructive  to  others,  than  after  the  labors  of 

*  Speech  at  Washington  in  1832,  on  the  colonization  and  civilization  of  Africa. 


262  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

the  day,  at  the  festive  board  which  his  own  generous 
hospitality  had  spread.  And  now,  the  seal  of  the  trans 
mitted  record  of  his  official  action,  on  that  occasion,  is  not 
yet  broken,  at  the  seat  of  government,  and  he  who  was 
placed  in  honor  at  the  head  of  the  electoral  body  is  no 
more  of  earth.  So  pass  away  the  venerated  and  the 
loved  from  the  scenes  of  their  loftiest  labors. 

The  character  of  Gov.  Everett  is  not  to  be  portrayed 
with  thoughtless  haste,  or  judged  by  the  superficial  views 
which  the  mere  remembrance  of  brilliant  qualities  may 
present.  With  the  richest  intellectual  endowment, 
extraordinary  mental  cultivation,  and  great  aptitude  for 
communication,  he  united  a  persistent  labor  in  acquisi 
tion,  a  clearness  of  perception,  a  power  of  analysis  and 
concentration,  a  profoundness  of  thought,  and  a  consider 
ate  judgment,  which  constituted  in  his  person,  a  com 
bination  of  virtues  and  graces,  rarely  if  ever  excelled. 
His  early  life  was  that  of  a  scholar  and  a  thinker,  his 
mature  years  were  a  continued  harvest  of  the  treasures  of 
learning  and  wisdom,  which  time  and  study  and  experi 
ence  garnered  up.  It  will  be  the  grateful  office  of  some 
gifted  biographer  to  present  the  life  of  Gov.  Everett  in 
all  its  attractiveness  of  erudite  knowledge,  scientific 
accomplishment,  and  forensic  capability,  with  a  power 
of  reasoning  most  persuasive,  and  an  eloquence  captivat 
ing  and  irresistible. 

But  it  is  of  Gov.  Everett  in  the  relations  to  the  offices 
of  public  employment  and  trust  which  he  sustained  and 
adorned,  that  it  rather  becomes  me  to  speak.  It  has 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  few  men  to  fill  so  many  and  such 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.          263 

varied  appointments  of  confidence  and  high  responsibility. 
His  whole   life  was   almost  an   unbroken  public  service. 
The  ministry  to   which   he  was  first   ordained,  was   but  a 
school   of  moral  and  Christian  instruction  and  edification 
to   others.      In  the  university,   whether   as  Professor   or 
President,  he  became  the  educator  of  the  rising  genera 
tion  in  the  principles  and  virtues  which  are  alike  the  founda 
tion  and  the  supports  of  a  republican  form  of  government. 
In  deliberative  assemblies  and  the  councils  of  state,  his 
eminent  capacity  and  peculiar  versatility  and  adaptation  of 
talent   commended  him  to  frequent  demands  for  official 
service,   and    he    filled    successively    with    distinguished 
ability  and  conscientious  fidelity,  alike  to  his  own  great 
honor   and  the  approval  of  the   country,   the    offices    of 
Representative  in  Congress,  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  and  United  States 
Senator.    As  minister  to  England,  he  sustained  the  dignity 
and   vindicated    the    rights   of    the    nation,    and   happily 
maintained,  with  signal  success,  its  interest  and  its  honor 
intact,    and   unimpaired   by  the  arts    and   designs  of   an 
adverse  diplomacy.     And  yet  more  recently,  in  this  last 
great   struggle  for  very   existence,  into  which   our  once 
united    and  prosperous  country  has  been  most  wickedly 
and  deplorably  plunged  by  plotting  treason  and  flagrant 
rebellion,    who    more    loyally    patriotic;    who    more  effi 
ciently  active  and  influential  in  support  of  the  Govern 
ment    and    in    defence    of    the    Republic    than    Edward 
Everett]       It    may    not   be    doubted    that   his    words    of 
wondrous  eloquence  will  do  much,  where  even  the  mis 
siles   of  war  would  be   unheeded,  to   disabuse  prejudice 


264  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

and  disarm  hostility  in  the  rebel  states.  The  Mount 
Vernon  fund,  and  the  contributions  to  the  relief  of  the 
Tennessee  refugees,  emphatically  and  almost  exclusively 
collections  of  his  unsurpassed  sympathy  and  generosity 
and  the  persistent  influence  of  a  noble  heart,  with  his 
last  stirring  utterances  in  aid  of  the  beneficence  of  his 
fellow-citizens  to  the  famishing  people  of  repentant  Sa 
vannah,  proclaim  him  foremost  among  the  benefactors  of 
his  country  and  the  age. 

I  will  not  even  attempt,  Mr.  President,  to  fill  in  the 
altogether  too  imperfect  and  hasty  outline  which  I  have 
sketched  of  the  public  services  of  this  illustrious  Ameri 
can  citizen.  His  long  life  has  been  a  blessing  to  man 
kind.  The  civilized  world  will  deplore  his  death.  His 
name  and  fame  will  be  immortal. 

Hon.  Henry  Chapin  made  the  following  remarks  :  — 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  It  is  eminently  appropriate  that  the 
members  of  this  Society  should  pay  their  tribute  of  respect 
to  their  late  distinguished  associate,  and  former  president. 
By  his  pure  life,  his  ripe  scholarship,  his  varied  acquire 
ments,  and  his  peculiar  oratorical  power,  he  reflected  honor 
upon  every  association  with  which  he  was  connected.  In 
all  these  relations  may  be  most  appropriately  applied  to 
him  the  compliment  once  given  to  another,  "  Nullum  quod 
tetigit  non  ornavit" 

In  certain  respects  Edward  Everett  was  a  very  remark 
able  man.  His  classic  head  and  face,  his  elegant  form, 
his  singularly  musical  voice,  his  purity  and  strength  of 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY.  265 

diction  and  his  unsurpassed  eloquence  of  speech  will  not 
be  soon  forgotten  by  any  who  have  had  the  privilege  to 
observe  them.  I  never  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  his  per 
sonal  acquaintance.  Indeed  the  idea  of  seeking  it  never 
occurred  to  me,  but  I  looked  upon  his  grace  of  action, 
and  drank  in  his  eloquent  utterances,  with  unabated  inter 
est  and  constant  admiration.  On  all  occasions  he  was  a 
gentleman,  and  at  all  times  he  bore  himself  with  a  quiet 
dignity,  which  was  always  fit  and  appropriate.  A  scholar? 
an  orator,  a  patriot,  and  a  Christian,  he  has  filled  a  place  in 
the  country  which  no  man  now  living  can  fill,  and  he  will 
long  be  remembered  by  those  who  have  listened  to  his 
words  as  one  of  the  best  models  of  scholarly  eloquence 
and  beautiful  thoughts. 

An  instance  of  the  effect  of  one  of  his  masterly  appeals 
will  never  be  forgotten  by  me.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of 
the  reception  of  the  representatives  of  the  Sacs  and 
Foxes  at  Faneuil  Hall.  The  Hall  was  filled  to  its  utmost 
capacity,  and  many  of  course  were  excluded  from  entering 
it.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  red  men,  the  audience  seemed 
moved  as  by  some  invisible  demon  of  tumult  and  confu 
sion.  It  swayed  frightfully  in  every  direction.  The  offi 
cers  of  the  law  seemed  to  exert  themselves  in  vain,  and 
every  one  who  was  in  a  position  to  observe  the  surging 
mass  looked  upon  it  with  feelings  of  anxiety,  if  not  of 
dismay.  In  the  midst  of  the  tumult,  Gov.  Everett  arose 
upon  the  platform,  and  his  clear  sweet  voice  sounded 
through  the  Hall  with  a  magical  and  resistless  power. 
Said  he,  "  Gentlemen,  suffer  me  to  make  an  appeal  to 
you."  The  rest  of  his  language  I  am  unable  to  recall, 


266  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

but  in  words  firm,  tender,  and  persuasive,  he  spoke  of 
these  untutored  children  of  the  forest,  coming  to  the  land 
of  civilization  and  refinement,  and  he  besought  his  fel 
low  citizens  so  to  demean  themselves,  that  those  who  had 
never  enjoyed  the  blessings  and  privileges  which  we 
enjoy,  should  carry  home  with  them  an  exalted  idea  of 
their  beneficent  and  purifying  influence.  Before  he  had 
half  completed  his  remarks,  the  tumult  had  subsided,  and 
at  the  close  of  his  appeal  that  mass  of  human  beings  stood 
as  quiet  and  still  as  the  marble  statues  by  his  side. 

I  never  before  nor  since  beheld  a  more  wonderful  exhi 
bition  of  the  power  of  the  human  voice,  and  I  remember 
no  speech  of  his  which  to  me  was  more  eloquent  or 
effective. 

At  times  the  speeches  and  writings  of  Mr.  Everett,  beauti 
ful,  eloquent,  and  polished  though  they  are,  often  failed  to 
reach  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  The  fault,  perhaps,  was 
either  in  his  temperament,  or  in  his  cautious  views  upon  the 
topics  of  the  day,  which  at  times  almost  gave  the  impres 
sion  that  he  lacked  depth  of  conviction.  He  was  naturally 
timid  and  distrustful  of  change.  He  was  the  eloquent 
outgrowth  of  an  age  of  compromise  and  expediency,  and 
he  presented  all  there  was  of  that  age  to  respect,  in  its 
most  beautiful  and  attractive  form.  He  revered  the  past, 
but  distrusted  the  future.  He  believed  in  facts,  but  lacked 
faith  in  the  power  of  ideas.  He  honored  precedents,  but 
doubted  theories.  He  seemed  'at  times  almost  to  rever 
ence  expediency  at  tlie  expense  of  absolute  right.  He 
was  the  eloquent  expositor  of  the  past,  the  beautiful  delin 
eator  of  the  present,  but  he  was  not  the  bold  prophet  of 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE  ANTIQUARIAN   SOCIETY.  267 

the  future.  Hence  during  the  vigor  of  his  life,  impressed 
with  an  honest  fear  of  evils  to  come,  he  seemed  to  throw 
his  transcendent  talents  in  the  way  of  progress  and  reform, 
until  he  was  almost  crushed  beneath  their  advancing  tread, 
and  the  lovers  of  liberty  and  right  had  almost  come  to 
look  upon  him  as  an  enemy  to  freedom  and  humanity. 
Blessed  be  God,  the  veil  lifted  at  last  from  his  vision. 
The  first  gun  which  was  fired  at  Fort  Sumter  drove  the 
warm  blood  to  his  heart ;  with  true  manliness  and  mag 
nanimity  he  declared  that  he  had  been  mistaken,  and  he 
girded  himself  for  the  conflict.  No  service  during  these 
years  of  war  has  been  shunned,  no  duty  has  been  neglect 
ed  by  him.  Throwing  both  head  and  heart  into  the 
great  struggle  for  free  institutions,  he  has  redeemed  him 
self  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  contemporaries,  he 
has  demonstrated  to  the  world  his  integrity  and  patriot 
ism,  and  he  has  placed  his  name  high  on  the  scroll  of  the 
friends  of  the  country,  and  the  defenders  of  the  rights  of 
man.  He  died  at  the  zenith  of  his  true  fame,  his  last 
days  were  his  best,  and  the  tears  of  a  grateful  people  do 
justice  to  his  memory  and  to  his  great  and  patriotic 
services. 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES 


AT  THE 


EVERETT    SCHOOL. 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES  AT  THE  EVERETT 

SCHOOL. 


ON  the  morning  of  Saturday,  January  21,  1865,  at  nine  o'clock, 
the  scholars  of  the  Everett  School  were  assembled  in  the  spacious 
hall  of  the  Schoolhouse,  on  Northampton  Street.  The  Committee 
of  the  School  were  present,  and  a  large  number  of  the  parents  of 
the  children.  The  Master  of  the  School,  Mr.  George  B.  Hyde, 
commenced  the  exercises  by  reading  appropriate  selections  from  the 
Scriptures.  Prayer  was  offered  by  Rev.  Robert  C.  Waterston, 
after  which  a  hymn  was  sung  by  the  members  of  the  first  class. 

Alden  Speare,  Esq.  Chairman  of  the  Sub-Committee,  then 
stated  the  purposes  of  the  present  gathering,  setting  forth  the  loss 
this  school  had  sustained  in  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett,  and  the  mul 
titude  of  reasons  which  impelled  us  to  pay  respect  to  his  memory. 
He  closed  by  introducing  Frederic  F.  Thayer,  Esq.  who,  as 
Chairman  of  the  Sub-Committee  of  the  School  for  the  year  1860, 
was  familiar  with  all  the  circumstances  connected  with  the  naming 
and  the  dedication  of  the  Schoolhouse. 

Mr.  Thayer  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  :  When,  yesterday,  I  received  your 
kind  invitation  to  be  present  here  this  morning,  and  to 


272  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

say  a  few  words,  I  confess  to  mingled  emotions  of  grati 
tude  for  the  compliment  of  the  invitation ;  and  of  con 
scious  inability  to  say  anything  worthy  of  the  occasion. 
But  inasmuch  as  here  I  am  not  a  stranger,  and  lest  my 
silence  might  be  construed  to  indicate  a  diminution  of 
interest  in  this  School,  or  an  indifference  to  the  occasion, 
I  shall  venture  to  occupy  a  few  moments  of  the  hour, 
set  apart  for  this  sad  memorial  service. 

We  have  reached  the  last  day  of  a  week  of  mourning. 
On  its  first  morning,  when  all  the  Christian  world  was 
preparing  for  the  quiet  of  another  Sabbath,  the  foremost 
man  among  us  was  called  from  the  turmoils  and  excite 
ments  of  earth  to  his  everlasting  rest.  From  the  crowd 
who  were  accustomed  to  go  to  the  house  of  God  in  com 
pany,  one  was  missing ;  our  hope  and  our  faith  prompt 
the  suggestion,  that  another  had  joined  'the  society  of 
"  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect."  A  mortal, 
though  loved,  honored  as  few  men  ever  have  been,  yet 
a  mortal,  by  one  of  the  kindliest  agencies,  through  which 
the  angel  of  death  visits  human  habitations  to  execute  his 
terrible  mission,  had  laid  aside  the  burden  of  the  flesh, 
with  its  anxieties,  its  struggles,  and  its  sorrows,  and  put 
on  the  immortal  vestments,  with  the  emblematic  palm- 
wreath  and  crown.  And  as  the  voice  of  the  Christian 
minister  was  lifted  to  lead  the  devotions  of  his  people  in 
prayer  to  God,  for  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  in  thank 
fulness  for  innumerable  blessings,  it  did  not  fail  to  offer 
also  the  petition  of  a  whole  people,  stricken  by  sudden 
and  overwhelming  grief.  From  that  day  to  this,  has  the 


SERVICES    AT   THE   EVERETT   SCHOOL.  273 

prayer  been  repeated  aloud  in  the  busy  marts  of  com 
merce,  and  in  the  privacy  of  a  thousand  homes,  indicat 
ing  so  sincerely,  an  expression  of  bereavement  so  general, 
as  almost  never  to  have  been  equalled  in  the  event  of  the 
death  of  any  citizen.  The  eloquence  of  the  most  gifted, 
the  learning  of  the  schools,  and  the  heartfelt  utterances  of 
friend  to  friend,  have  indicated  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
loss  our  city,  our  state,  our  country,  the  enlightened 
world,  have  sustained  in  his  death,  whose  virtues,  whose 
patriotism,  whose  learning,  all  vie  with  each  other  most 
fittingly  to  exalt  and  to  commemorate. 

Impelled  by  the  same  motives  which  have  induced 
the  numerous  societies  and  associations,  of  which  he  was 
a  member,  to  assemble  that  they  might  properly  call  to 
mind  his  pleasant  connection  with  them,  —  to  be  experi 
enced  no  more  on  earth,  —  and  to  make  a  respectful  record 
to  his  memory,  are  we  now  assembled,  —  the  teachers, 
the  pupils,  the  Committee,  and  a  portion  of  the  friends  of 
the  Everett  School ;  to  repeat  in  great  measure,  it  may  be, 
what  others  have  said  before  us ;  but  on  this  spot,  amid 
these  scenes,  wherein  he  was  wont  to  join  us  with  pleasure, 
—  in  this  building,  which  is  to  bear  his  name,  —  probably 
when  all  of  us,  like  him.  have  passed  from  earth,  is  to 
bear  his  name  to  the  generations  that  shall  be,  until  brick 
and  stone,  and  mortar  shall  have  crumbled,  and  the 
action  of  the  elements  shall  have  worn  away  from  the 
tablet  all  traces  of  the  letters  which  compose  the  illustri 
ous  name,  —  in  this  building,  within  these  walls,  resonant 
with  his  praise,  and  tributary  of  the  esteem,  with  which 

35 


274  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

the  men  of  this  generation  regarded  him,  we  do  gratify 
our  feelings  of  reverence  and  of  affection,  as  we  gather 
here  in  sympathy  with  a  whole  community ;  and  among 
ourselves,  in  our  own  way,  to  mourn  for  the  lamented 
dead,  where  we  have  met  to  rejoice  with  the  honored 
living. 

I  am  aware,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  am  indebted  for  the 
compliment  of  an  invitation  to  be  present  on  this  occasion 
to  the  fact,  that  a  few  years  since,  it  was  my  privilege  to 
bear  an  humble  part  in  connecting  Mr.  Everett's  name 
permanently  with  this  school. 

To  a  gentleman,  now  a  member  of  the  Committee,  and 
myself,  were  entrusted  the  arrangements  for  the  dedica 
tion,  and  we  entered  upon  our  duties,  by  waiting  upon 
Mr.  Everett,  to  inform  him  of  the  action  of  the  Board, 
and  to  request  his  presence  at  the  dedication,  which  was 
to  take  place  on  the  following  Monday,  the  17th  of 
September,  the  230th  birthday  of  our  city.  He  cheer 
fully  complied  with  our  request,  and  most  of  us  remem 
ber  with  pleasure,  his  participation  in  the  exercises  of 
that  day,  when  with  his  friends,  the  Hon.  Robert  C. 
Winthrop,  President  Felton,  of  blessed  memory,  Rev.  Dr. 
George  Putnam,  of  our  neighboring  city,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Eliot, 
of  Washington  University,  he  joined  the  city  authorities, 
and  teachers  and  pupils  of  the  school,  in  consecrating  this 
building  to  the  lofty  purposes  of  education,  —  under  his 
revered  name,  to  hold  no  unworthy  place  among  the 
excellent  schools  of  our  metropolis. 

That  Mr.  Everett  appreciated  what  had  been   accom 
plished,  in  this  appropriation  of  his  name,  we  may  learn,  if 


SERVICES   AT   THE   EVERETT    SCHOOL.  275 

we  recall  the  words  used  by  him,  on  that  occasion,  where 
he  says,  "  Devoted,  for  a  pretty  long  life,  to  the  public 
service,  in  a  variety  of  pursuits  and  occupations,. laboring, 
I  know,  I  may  say  diligently,  and  I  hope  I  may  add, 
though  sometimes  with  erring  judgment,  yet  always  with 
honest  purpose,  for  the  public  good  at  home  and  abroad ; 
I  frankly  own,  sir,  that  no  public  honor,  compliment,  or 
reward  which  has  fallen  to  my  lot,  has  given  me  greater 
pleasure  than  the  association  of  my  name  with  one  of 
these  noble  public  schools  of  Boston."  In  full  accord 
ance  with  this  expression,  are  other  indications  which 
have  come  under  my  personal  observation.  Both  by 
letter,  and  from  his  own  lips,  have  I  had  repeated  assur 
ance  that  he  was  deeply  interested  in  the  prosperity  of 
this  school ;  that  he  felt  a  just  pride  in  its  reputation  and 
in  its  usefulness ;  and  as  he  more  than  once  said,  he  only 
waited  the  time,  when  his  country  could  be  relieved  from 
threatening  perils,  to  manifest  his  interest  more  by  his 
frequent  presence.  Alas,  for  the  school,  that  day  will 
not  come  !  Alas  !  for  us  and  for  the  school,  the  demands 
of  a  bleeding  country  upon  his  patriotic  services  pre 
vented  his  frequent  and  valuable  participation  in  .cultivat 
ing  here  the  arts  of  peace.  But  thanks  to  the  Providence 
which  ordained  it,  he  was  found  equal  to  the  emergency, 
and  in  the  hour  of  our  country's  greatest  need,  when  the 
hearts  of  men  were  failing  them  from  fear,  he  stood 
forth,  loftiest  among  the  mighty,  the  safe  counsellor,  the 
champion  of  republican  institutions  in  their  purity,  the 
intelligent  and  eloquent  prophet  of  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  liberty.  You,  my  young  friends  of  the  school,  were 


276  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

deprived  of  his  benedictive  presence  and  his  valuable 
counsels;  but  his  strength  of  body  and  mind,  and  the 
earnest  prayers  of  his  trusting,  Christian  heart  were  given 
to  his  country,  which  needed  th^m  more  than  you.  And, 
to-day,  when  we  are  met  to  mourn  his  sudden  departure, 
we  can  rejoice,  that  by  the  sublime  efforts  of  his  genius, 
as  developed  so  recently  in  untried  channels,  and  the  con 
secration  of  his  matchless  powers  to  sustain  all  that  is 
good  in  the  institutions  under  which  we  live ;  in  the  out 
pourings  of  his  lips  that  the  hungry  might  be  fed,  the 
naked  clothed,  and  the  famishing  restored ;  and  all  this, 
while  not  entirely  neglecting  the  multitude  of  obligations 
which  had  claimed  a  share  in  his  regards  and  his  services, 
under  a  happier  condition  of  national  affairs,  he  showed 
to  us  and  to  the  whole  world  that  his  last  days  were  his 
best  days,  and  every  day  as  it  came,  shortening  his  career 
upon  the  earth,  found  him  better  fitted  for  heaven. 

We  can  then,  and  we  will  mingle  gratitude  with  our 
lamentations  over  his  grave,  —  gratitude  to  God,  that  to 
our  'times  he  gave  such  a  complete  development  of  the 
highest  manhood.  We  will  be  grateful  for  his  services  to 
the  world,  —  grateful  that  his  unsurpassed  talents  were 
never  used  but  for  the  public  good,  —  grateful  that  before 
our  bodily  eyes  has  been  presented,  in  attractive  fo'rm 
and  feature,  such  an  excellent  example.  In  the  refined 
scholar,  in  the  accomplished  orator,  in  the  consummate 
statesman,  in  the  perfect  gentleman,  in  the  unostentatious 
Christian,  we  find  an  embodiment  of  what  our  free  insti 
tutions,  in  their  highest  culture,  directed  and  controlled 
by  a  living  Christianity,  will  produce.  We  will  be  grate- 


SERVICES   AT   THE   EVERETT    SCHOOL.  277 

ful  also  for  our  humble  connection  with  him,  trifling 
though  it  be ;  for  so  much  as  it  is,  it  has  been  another 
bond  to  whatever  is  good,  and  noble,  and  true.  When 
ever  he  has  been  with  us,  he  did  not  leave  us  without  his 
blessing.  And  now  that  he  has  ascended,  I  would  that  all 
which  is  worthy  of  remembrance  and  imitation,  —  and 
how  much  was  there  in  such  a  life  as  his,  —  I  would  that 
it  should  be  transfigured  before  us.  As  we  shall  see  his 
living  face  no  more,  I  rejoice  that  the  devotion  of  the 
master  of  this  school,  and  his  reverence  for  him  who  was 
worthiest  among  the  living,  now  sainted  among  the  dead, 
prompted  his  generous  heart  to  secure  this  splendid 
marble  bust,  cairn,  graceful,  majestic,  like  him  whose 
lineaments  it  so  accurately  portrays,  but  to-day  deco 
rated  with  the  emblems  of  sadness,  in  sympathy  with  all 
around.  I  rejoice  it  is  here.  I  rejoice  it  is  to  remain 
here,  to  be  more  precious  than  before  ;  to  remind  all 
who  enter  within  these  walls  that  the  presiding  genius 
here  is  excellence,  —  excellence  in  conversation,  excel 
lence  in  deportment,  excellence  in  intellectual  accom 
plishments,  excellence  in  Christian  graces.  Under  such 
a  tutelage,  with  the  throng  of  cooperating  advantages 
here  enjoyed,  we  might  trust  in  the  most  flattering  prom 
ise  of  a  generation  of  well  educated,  well  balanced, 
firm  principled,  devoted,  Christian  women,  to  bear  their 
honorable  part  in  the  great  future  of  our  country. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman  and  friends,  I  have  consumed  the 
portion  of  time  which  it  becomes  me  to  occupy  ;  and  I 
must  close,  although  I  have  just  reached  that  part  of  my 
theme  which  most  attracts  me.  I  must  leave  to  others  to 


278  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

dwell  upon  the  value  of  such  an  example  before  the 
youth  of  our  land.  What  a  wealth  of  beneficent  influence 
is  treasured  up  in  the  story  of  his  life !  Though  "  being 
dead,  he  yet  speaketh."  To  all  alike,  young  and  old,  he 
speaks,  telling  of  the  possibilities  wrapped  up  in  this 
nature  of  ours,  of  the  responsibilities  which  accompany 
exalted  talents,  and  how  religiously  they  may  be  fulfilled;  — 
of  the  present  reward,  which  waits  upon  fidelity  to  duty, 
and  a  compliance  with  the  providential  directions  of 
passing  life,  —  telling,  how  it  is  possible  to  be  great  and 
good ;  to  be  kind,  and  virtuous,  and  true ;  to  be  learned  in 
all  worldly  lore,  to  hold  the  loftiest  positions  among  men, 
and  yet  be  studious  of  the  precepts  of  the  Master,  humbly 
following  Him  who  "  went  about  doing  good," — how  it  is 
possible  to  move  uncontaminated  amid  the  world's  glitter 
ing  fascinations  and  its  fleeting  shadows,  —  to  turn  aside 
from  the  broad  highway  and  its  sure  destruction,  to  enter 
in  at  the  straight  gate,  —  to  attain,  as  he  attained,  and  to 
share  with  him  "  the  peace  and  the  progress  of  the 
skies." 

Rev.  R.  C.  Waterston,  a  member  of  the  Sub-Committee,  said:  — 

It  is  natural  that  we  should  strive  to  recall,  as  far  as 
possible,  each  incident  in  the  life  of  the  illustrious  bene 
factor  who  has  been  so  recently  taken  from  us.  Every 
look  and  word,  all  the  expressions  of  counsel  and  en 
couragement  which  we  have  heard  him  utter. 

It  was  one  of  his  great  pleasures  to  visit  this  school, 


SERVICES   AT   THE   EVERETT    SCHOOL.  279 

bearing  as  it  did  his  name;  and  you,  I  am  quite  sure, 
always  felt  it  a  privilege  to  welcome  him. 

In  that  volume  from  which  we  have  just  heard  such 
appropriate  passages  read,  —  we  are  told  that  when  Peter 
was  in  a  certain  city  of  Judea,  one  who  had  been  actively 
useful,  had  been  suddenly  taken  away.  When  the  Apos 
tle  met  the  sorrowing  company,  they  gathered  around, 
showing  the  garments  they  had  received,  while  the  friend 
now  departed  was  yet  living.  What  a  graphic  touch  of 
nature  is  that ! 

The  instructive  prompting  of  their  hearts  led  them  to 
recall  those  grateful  reminiscences.  It  was  the  finest 
tribute  which  could  be  paid,  surpassing  in  its  simplicity 
all  human  eloquence. 

Thus  Shakespeare,  with  his  transcendent  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  makes  Mark  Antony  exclaim  over  the 
body  of  Julius  Csesar  :  — 

"You  all  do  know  this  mantle,  I  remember 
The  first  time  ever  Caesar  put  it  on." 

« 

So  in  tfie  presence  of  the  Apostle,  the  people  gather 
about  him  holding  up  for  his  notice  the  treasured  memo 
rials  of  their  departed  friend,  recounting  each  act  of 
kindness. 

True  to  the  same  natural  impulse,  at  the  present 
moment,  societies,  associations,  and  individuals  are 
meeting  together,  that  they  may  express  those  feelings 
of  respect  and  affection  which  gush  up  with,  fresh  in 
tensity  in  the  heart.  Fondly  do  they  dwell  upon  each 


280  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

pleasant  remembrance.  What  lie  has  said  and  done  in 
their  behalf.  •  The  University,  the  City,  the  State,  the 
Nation,  pauses  to  recount  every  word  and  deed. 

Ay,  even  while  we  speak,  the  steamer  that  so  lately 
left  this  port,  may  be  entering  the  harbor  of  Savannah, 
while  those  who  receive  the  aid  which  has  been  thus  gen 
erously  sent,  having  heard  already^  by  the  swift  telegraph, 
of  this  sad  event,  may  exclaim  —  "That  eloquent  voice 
(to  be  heard  no  more)  gave  forth  its  closing  accents  in 
our  behalf.  That  which  we  receive,  in  this  hour  of  need, 
comes  as  from  his  hand  !  " 

So  also  with  us,  my  young  friends,  we  shall  do  well  to 
recall  in  this  impressive  hour,  whatever  we  may  have 
known  of  that  life  and  character.  If  we  have  seen  that 
face,  if  we  have  heard  that  voice,  if  we  have  had  any 
special  opportunity  at  any  time  or  in  any  way  of  becom 
ing  acquainted  with  a  mind  which  exerted  so  wide  and 
so  powerful  an  influence,  let  us  dwell  upon  it  in  thought, 
let  us  speak  of  it  frankly  one  with  another. 

Thus  if  you  remember  Mr.  Everett's  visits  to  this 
School,  if  you  can  recall  any  of  his  remarks,  you  will  do 
w^ell  to  retain  that  recollection  as  vividly  as  possible  ;  to 
strengthen  the  impression,  and  to  add  to  its  value  by 
speaking  of  it  to  others. 

I  know  that  he  gave  a  book  to  each  of  the  older  scholars, 
the  name  written  out  in  connection  with  his  own ;  with 
what  constantly  increasing  interest,  will  others  look  upon 
that  autograph ! 

My  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Everett  commenced 
in  1834:.  —  thirty-one  years  ago.  I  had  written  an  article 


SERVICES   AT   THE  EVERETT   SCHOOL.  281 

for  the  North  American  Review,  of  which  he  was,  at  that 
time,  the  editor.  He  resided  at  Charlestown,  and  sent  an 
invitation  for  me  to  come  and  see  him.  Never  can  I  for 
get  his  kindness  upon  that  occasion,  a  kindness  which 
knew  no  shadow  through  thirty  years.  Within  three 
days  of  his  death,  I  received  two  notes  from  him,  in  one 
of  which  he  says  "  I  rise  from  my  bed  (to  which  I  have 
been  mostly  confined  since  Monday)  to  write  you."  The 
day  following  he  says — "  I  was  too  ill  to  write  at  any 
length  yesterday,  and  I  am  not  much  better  to-day." 
Then,  having  added  a  few  lines,  he  closes  with  the  words 
"  My  head  is  too  cloudy."  A  startling  expression  from 
him,  and,  I  confess,  awakening  the  first  feeling  of  ap 
prehension. 

This  I  received  on  Friday.  On  Sunday  morning  he 
was  no  more  here.  On  that  Monday,  to  which  he  refers, 
he  had  made  his  thrilling,  and  (as  we  then  little  knew) 
his  last  speech  at  Faneuil  Hall.  That  mind  which  seemed 
never  cloudy  before,  had  this  slight  foreshadowing,  this 
gentle  intimation  of  the  swift-approaching  event.  Now, 
even  that  momentary  veil  has  been  withdrawn,  and  that 
mind,  with  its  wonderful  powers,  has  risen  into  celestial 
glory. 

How  mysterious  !  and  yet  is  it  not  blended  with  grand 
eur  ?  With  every  faculty  in  unsurpassed  vigor,  active 
and  useful,  never  more  so,  to  the  whole  community  and 
the  entire  Nation,  suddenly  he  is  uplifted  above  the  things 
of  time.  Sorrowful  as  we  may  feel,  is  there  not  reason 
on  his  account  for  exultation  ? 

As  long  as  the  oldest  of  us  here  can  remember,  he  has 

36 


282  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

been  one  of  the  most  marked  men  of  the  country,  and 
never  has  he  been  more  honored  or  beloved  than  within 
the  last  four  years  of  our  country's  strife  and  struggle. 

Through  these  days  of  calamity  and  cloud,  he  has  been 
firm  and  fearless.  I  need  not  dwell  upon  that  patriotic 
devotion  which  we  have  all  witnessed,  and  to  which  we 
shall  ever  recur  with  gratitude  and  delight. 

My  purpose  at  this  time  will  be,  not  to  dwell  upon  his 
public  career,  but  briefly  to  consider  two  or  three  of  those 
characteristics,  which  it  may  be  of  advantage  for  the 
pupils  of  this  school,  and  for  the  young  generally,  to  keep 
in  mind. 

The  first  characteristic  to  which  I  will  refer  is,  his 
COURTESY.  This,  I  believe,  he  extended  at  all  times,  to 
all  persons,  old  and  young,  learned  and  ignorant,  rich  and 
poor.  I  doubt  if  he  was  ever  guilty  of  a  discourteous  act 
to  the  least  influential  person,  or  even  to  an  opponent. 
It  is  my  conviction  that  this  was  in  him  no  empty  for 
mality  ;  but  that  it  was  based  upon  a  thoughtfulness  of 
the  feelings  and  the  rights  of  others.  This  respectfulness 
of  manner,  this  grace  of  deportment,  so  marked,  and  so 
attractive  in  our  distinguished  friend,  was  a  trait  which  the 
young  may  well  keep  before  them  as  an  incentive. 
Some  things  are  beyond  our  reach,  but  this,  to  a  consider 
able  degree,  is  within  the  attainment  of  all. 

At  times,  unawares,  perhaps,  the  young  acquire  a  brusk 
manner.  They  become,  it  may  be,  abrupt,  hasty,  pert, 
overbearing.  They  are  not  properly  respectful  to  the 
aged.  There  is  a  lack  of  gentleness  in  their  daily  inter 
course  with  their  companions. 


SERVICES    AT   THE   EVERETT   SCHOOL.  283 

In  what  striking  contrast  to  this  was  the  manner  and 
the  spirit  of  Edward  Everett. 

Let  the  young,  when  they  recall  the  splendor  of  those 
gifts  which  made  him  illustrious,  and  some  of  which  are 
far  beyond  common  acquirement,  remember  this  winning 
and  admirable  trait,  by  which  he  imparted  pleasure  to 
many,  through  all  the  daily  routine  of  life. 

Another  remarkable  characteristic  of  Mr.  Everett  was 
his  MEMORY. 

This  was  no  doubt  in  him  a  rare  natural  endowment. 
Still  it  was  strengthened  by  care  and  culture.  Probably 
no  man  in  this  country  has  possessed  this  faculty  and  per 
fected  it  to  such  a  degree,  unless  it  was  John  Quincy 
Adams ;  but  this  gift  in  him,  though  as  extraordinary  in 
some  respects,  was  less  marvellous  in  others. 

John  Quincy  Adams  appeared  to  remember  the  name  of 
every  person  he  had  ever  known,  the  ideas  of  every  book 
he  had  ever  read,  and  each  fact  which  had  ever  presented 
itself  to  his  knowledge.  And,  moreover,  he  was  never  at 
a  loss.  The  instant  that  any  subject  was  suggested,  at 
that  instant  all  his  recollections  and  acquisitions  were  be 
fore  him,  in  perfect  order  and  ready  for  use.  But  with 
him,  as  far  as  I  know,  it  was  principally  names,  facts, 
data,  the  rich  ore  which  he  could  work  abundantly,  and 
turn  evermore  to  his  purpose.  All  history  and  literature 
seemed  familiar  to  his  mind,  his  eye  penetrating  through 
everything  at  a  glance,  and  resting  .upon  the  very  fact 
he  needed.  But  Mr.  Everett,  while  he  remembered  facts, 
names,  and  data,  could,- also  recall  with  unerring  exactness 
the  precise  language  of  an  author. 


284:  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

We  all  know  how  he  could  with  ease  repeat,  word  for 
word,  orations  of  one  and  two  hours  in  length,  without 
the  slightest  reference  to  notes,  and  this  in  a  natural  tone, 
without  apparent  effort,  as  if  every  expression  was  the 
spontaneous  utterance  of  the  moment. 

I  will  mention  a  little  incident  illustrative  of  his 
memory,  which  happened  to  come  within  my  knowledge. 
A  friend  of  mine  in  London  stated  to  me  that  an  English 
gentleman,  having  printed  a  history  of  one  of  the  inte 
rior  counties  of  England,  he  sent  a  copy  of  the  work  to 
our  city  Library.  In  writing  to  Mr.  Everett,  as  one  of 
the  Trustees  of  the  Library,  my  friend  suggested  that,  as 
the  book  was  privately  printed,  it  would  doubtless  be  a 
gratification  to  the  author  if  he  should  receive  some 
special  acknowledgment. 

By  the  next  steamer  a  letter  was  received  from  Mr. 
Everett  —  not  only  expressing  thanks  for  the  volume,  but 
Mr.  Everett  stated  in  addition  that  he  was  at  Oxford  when 
that  gentleman  received  his  degree.  That  he  listened  with 
great  pleasure  to  a  Poem  which  that  gentleman  recited  at 
that  time,  and  that  he  was  particularly  impressed  by  the 
following  lines.  Here  he  quoted  a  passage  from  a  Poem 
which  had  never  been  published,  and  which  Mr.  Everett 
heard  incidentally  from  a  young  man  at  that  time  quite 
unknown,  and  in  connection  with  the  various  public 
exercises  of  a  Literary  Eestival,  and  yet  years  after  he 
could  recall  those  lines,  and  send  them  across  the  Atlantic 
to  the  author,  who  was  as  much  astonished  as  if  he  had 
heard  a  voice  coming  down  to  him  from  the  heavens. 

It  is  doubtful  if  there  is  another  man   in  the  country 


SERVICES   AT   THE   EVE11ETT   SCHOOL.  285 

who    could   have    exercised    such    a    singular    power    of 
memory,  or  have  made  such  a  felicitous  use  of  it. 

Mr.  Everett's  natural  gift  he  used  and  directed  with 
consummate  care.  It  would  be  curious  to  know  more 
fully  his  rules  and  practices.  While  at  College  he  com 
mitted  the  whole  of  Locke  on  the  Human  Understanding, 
so  that  he  could  repeat  it  word  for  word,  from  the  intro 
duction  to  the  close.  And  in  an  address  delivered  at  the 
request  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  I  heard 
him  repeat  more  than  one  hundred  and  eighty  names  of 
authors  and  artists  of  different  nations,  Greek,  Latin,  Ger 
man,  Italian,  Spanish,  French,  in  exact  order,  with  as 
much  apparent  ease  as  he  would  have  spoken  his  own 
name. 

This  power  varies  in  different  persons,  but  there  is  no 
faculty  more  perceptibly  affected  by  culture.  You  may 
be  sure,  my  young  friends,  that  by  every  lesson  you  learn, 
by  every  paragraph  you  commit,  you  are  strengthening 
this  important  faculty  of  mind,  which  may  prove  an  in 
calculable  advantage  to  you  in  after  life.  No  one  can 
fully  estimate  the  value  of  this  faculty  to  such  a  man  as 
Mr.  Everett.  How  different  he  would  have  been  with 
that  one  power  wanting !  And  how  greatly  is  the  world 
indebted  to  him  for  the  diligence  and  wisdom  with  which 
he  employed  it. 

The  next  and  closing  characteristic  of  which  I  will 
speak  is  that  fidelity  which  was  manifested  by  Mr.  Everett, 
not  only  in  great  but  in  minor  duties.  It  was  said  of 
Oberlin  that  he  was  conscientious  even  to  the  rounding  of 
an  O.  Mr.  Everett  was  faithful  to  the  same  degree. 


286  MEMORIAL  OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Nothing  was  too  minute  for  his  observation  or  his  care. 
You  see  it  in  every  note  he* penned,  in  every  word  he 
uttered.  It  mattered  not  whether  he  was  to  give  an 
elaborate  oration  before  some  learned  University,  or  a 
brief  address  before  some  small  Society,  or  simply  a 
remark  to  an  individual,  the  words  to  be  spoken  were  well 
considered.  There  was  an  appropriateness  and  a  com 
pleteness  which  made  it  memorable. 

Every  pamphlet  he  received  he  acknowledged  with  his 
own  hand,  and  whatever  he  did  was  done  promptly.  His 
industry  and  punctuality  were  something  extraordinary. 
The  notes  from  which  I  have  quoted,  received  within 
three  days  of  his  death,  are  a  proof  that  not  even  illness 
could  prevent  him  from  fulfilling,  even  to  within  a  few 
hours  of  his  departure,  whatever  it  was  within  his  power 
to  do.  I  confess  that  -even  more  than  for  his  most  splen 
did  achievements  do  I  honor  him  for  his  life-long  fidelity 
to  the  minutest  of  duties.  These  were  the  steps  by  which 
he  climbed  to  surprising  elevations.  The  rounds  in  that 
ladder,  which,  planted  on  the  earth,  reached  upward  and 
upward.  Every  young  person  may  learn  a  lesson  of  wis 
dom  from  Mr.  Everett  here.  Wordsworth  tells  us  that  — 

"  The  primal  duties  shine  aloft —  like  stars  ; 
The  charities  that  soothe,  and  heal,  and  bless, 
Are  scattered  at  the  feet  of  man  —  like  flowers." 

So  there  were  gifts  in  Mr.  Everett  which  we  may  never 
aspire  to  possess.  They  shine  aloft  like  stars,  to  cheer 
and  guide  us  in  our  pathway ;  but  there  are  qualities 
which  are  scattered  bountifully  within  our  reach.  Let  us 


SERVICES   AT   THE   EVERETT    SCHOOL.  287 

then  gain  whatever  advantage  is  possible  from  any  portion 
of  his  life,  and  any  characteristics  of  his  mind,  which 
may  offer  for  us  a  lesson. 

There  are  those  who  will  remember  Mr.  Everett  chiefly 
as  the  Orator ;  some  will  dwell  upon  him  as  the  States 
man  ;  some  as  the  man  of  Letters ;  some  will  recall  his 
patriotism  in  these  latter  days  of  his  country's  trial.  But 
while  you  think  of  him  as  the  Scholar,  the  Patriot,  the 
Statesman,  the  Orator,  —  you  will  think  of  him,  perhaps, 
most  fondly  as  the  friend  of  the  Everett  School.  You 
will  dwell  upon  him  in  thought,  as  he  appeared  to  you 
while  here.  May  his  example  inspire  you  to  constant 
diligence,  and  may  the  memory  of  what  he  accomplished 
lead  you  to  perpetual  progress. 

Mr.  Charles  W.  Slack  said  :  - 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FRIENDS  :  Mr.  Everett's  character 
was  so  many-sided  that  there  are  few  who  cannot  speak 
of  some  one  particular  quality  that  makes  his  memory  and 
name  respected.  For  me,  two  or  three  will  suffice  on 
this  occasion. 

1.  His  deep  interest  in  public  education.  Himself  a 
graduate  at  the  age  of  10  of  the  North  (now  Eliot)  School 
of  this  city,  his  children  severally  educated,  in  part,  at  the 
public  schools,  and  his  every  influence  exerted  for  the 
success  of  the  common-school  system  of  our  State,  he  was 
particularly  near  to  us  who  meet  on  this  occasion.  As 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  he  was  largely  influential  in 
giving  permanence  to  the  beneficial  system  of  Normal 


288  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

Schools,  which  are  alike  our  pride  and  strength.  True« 
Horace  Mann  was  a  potential  coadjutor  in  this  good  work 
of  a  systematic  and  progressive  scheme  of  School  educa 
tion,  but  Mr.  Everett  gave  the  large  weight  of  his  official 
and  personal  aid  to  the  work.  Then,  also,  he  was  largely 
the  promoter  of  the  lyceum  or  lecture  system,  now  so 
common  and  so  popular.  Before  his  day,  the  lecture- 
course  for  the  instruction  of  the  people  was  wholly 
unknown.  How  much  we  are  indebted  to  him  for  this 
great  service,  we  can  readily  appreciate  should  we  be 
deprived  of  our  Mercantile  Library,  our  Parker-frater 
nity,  our  Young  Men's  Christian  Association's  Lectures,  or, 
more  recently,  those  charming  lectures  of  Mr.  Emerson, 
all  of  which  are  the  direct  result  of  Mr.  Everett's  desire 
to  instruct  and  benefit  the  community.  Surely,  we  can 
all  thank  him  for  these  educational  advantages  to  the 
common  people. 

2.  His  wonderful  and  systematic  industry,  joined  with 
a  courteous  readiness  to  aid  in  any  proper  work  for  the 
benefit  of  his  fellow-citizens.  Think  of  his  long  and 
varied  life !  the  tasks  imposed  upon  him  in  each  sphere, 
and  with  what  rare  fidelity  he  discharged  his  several 
trusts !  What  files  of  addresses,  reports,  messages,  letters, 
orations,  attest  his  knowledge,  scholarship,  cooperation, 
as  well  as  eloquence !  He  was  ever  a  cheerful  worker.  I 
think  no  one  ever  appealed  to  him  for  assistance  in  a 
laudable  enterprise  that  did  not,  if  he  were  not  pre 
occupied,  receive  it  cordially  and  punctually.  And  this 
trait  of  his  punctuality  was  a  marked  one.  It  was  as 
much  a  charm  of  his  life  as  his  eloquence.  lie  never  de- 


SERVICES  AT   THE  EVERETT   SCHOOL.  289 

layed,  even  in  the  minutest,  and,  seemingly,  most  unim 
portant  particulars.  I  remember,  last  September,  being 
interested  in  a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  to  have  realized 
the  value  of  this  excellence.  It  was  just  after  the  brilliant 
success  of  the  indomitable  and  persistent  Sherman,  who, 
amid  the  mountains  of  Georgia,  had  just  planted  his 
colors  in  triumph  over  the  city  of  Atlanta.  It  was  while 
the  news  was  coming  to  us  that  the  brave  old  Farragut 
had  defiantly  made  the  passage  of  the  forts  in  Mobile 
Bay,  and  conquered  the  second  city  of  the  South  without 
even  placing  his  foot  upon  the  land.  Some  of  us  wanted  to 
celebrate  these  victories  in  Faneuil  Hall.  As  one  of  the 
Committee  of  Arrangements,  I  called  on  Mr.  Everett,  to 
aid  in  its  success.  He  received  me  cordially,  thanked  me 
heartily  for  the  honor,  told  me  his  whole  heart  and  soul 
was  in  response  to  the  glad  tidings  and  the  objects  of  the 
meeting,  but  he  had  for  a  few  days  been  very  feeble  in 
health,  was  busily  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  twelve 
lectures  upon  law  for  Harvard  University,  there  was 
scarce  time  for  him  to  elaborate  a  first-class  oration  for 
the  occasion,  as  he  should  desire,  and,  very  reluctantly,  he 
must  decline  the  invitation.  To  assent  cheerfully  to  the 
disappointment,  for  such  reasons,  was  only  a  duty.  "  But 
you  can  send  a  letter,  Mr.  Everett,  to  the  meeting,  can 
you  not  ?  "  I  asked.  "  With  great  pleasure,"  was  the  cor 
dial  response,  ."if  that  will  be  acceptable.  Call  to 
morrow  at  four  o'clock,  and  it  shall  be  ready  for  you."  I 
need  not  say  that  at  the  hour  named,  almost  to  a  minute, 
that  letter  was  in  my  hands,  in  his  well-known,  faultless 
chirography,  no  interlineations,  every  t  crossed,  every  i 

37 


290  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

dotted,  —  a  model  for  teacher  or  pupil  in  any  school ;  and 
this  from  a  man  pressed  with  untold  cares,  and  in  the 
seventy-first  year  of  his  age  !  That  letter  I  have  now 
with  me,  just  as  it  was  prepared  for  that  rejoicing  Faneuil 
Hall  assembly  by  Mr.  Everett  himself.  I  have  been 
solicited  by  committees  of  national  fairs,  lovers  of  choice 
autographs,  and  others,  to  part  with  it.  What  committees 
and  friends  could  not  by  entreaty  and  long  persuasion 
induce  me  to  surrender,  I  now  cheerfully  give  to  the 
Everett  School,  through  its  Principal,  to  be  added  to  such 
other  souvenirs  as  may  be  possessed,  as  my  tribute,  as  a 
past  chairman  and  a  past  secretary  of  the  Everett  School 
District  Committee,  to  the  memory  of  a  man  deserving 
to  have  the  School  named  in  his  honor. 

3.  His  Nationality.  This  was  deep-seated,  far-reach 
ing,  wholly  American.  He  believed  in  the  American 
name,  American  literature,  science,  commerce,  manufac 
tures,  and  the  craft  of  the  artisan.  Never  was  this 
quality  so  brilliantly  illustrated  as  during  the  last  four 
years.  American  law,  order,  nationality,  the  sovereignty 
of  a  great  people,  the  perpetuity  of  the  great  republic, 
were  the  themes  which  found  expression  in  a  hundred 
ways  of  popular  address.  He  sustained  the  war,  he  sus 
tained  the  government,  he  sustained  the  administration , 
it  was  all  unselfish,  disinterested,  cordial,  patriotic.  No 
man  can  measure  the  value  of  this  support  —  scarce  one 
throughout  the  continent  equalled  it  in  influence.  This 
memory  of  the  departed  will  to  many  be  the  sweetest  and 
longest  enduring. 

I  fear,   Mr.   Chairman,  I  do  not  join  with  many  in  the 


SERVICES   AT  THE   EVERETT   SCHOOL.  991 

feeling  of  profound  sorrow  which  has  attended  this  depart 
ure.  I  cannot  divorce  my  mind  from  the  thought  that  it 
is  a  wise  consummation  of  a  full-measured  and  rounded- 
out  existence  here.  To  me  it  is  in  accord  with  the  benefi 
cent  laws  of  nature.  I  know  that  the  wilting  and  falling 
leaves  of  the  flower  only  indicate  that  its  keenest  fragrance 
and  intensest  coloring  have  been  given  to  its  admirers  ;  I 
see  the  golden  fruit,  streaked  with  its  ribands  of  emerald 
and  ruby,  hanging  in  the  autumn  sun,  and  at  the  favoring 
moment  it  drops,  fully  ripe,  into  the' lap  of  mother  earth  ; 
the  dying  swan,  we  are  told,  throws  forth  its  sweetest 
notes  of  song  with  its  expiring  breath  ;  and  may  we  not 
believe  that,  with  the  same  all-wise  provision  for  His 
children,  the  good  Father  called  our  departed  friend  when 
his  work  was  fully  done,  his  life  wholly  completed,  and 
his  memory  should  be  the  sweetest  to  all  who  remain  ? 
Let  us  be  thankful  we  have  that  memory,  that  life,  that 
work,  and  from  them  each  shall  radiate  influences  which 
shall  evermore  bless  and  benefit  the  world. 

The    master   of  the    School,    in    a   few    appropriate   remarks, 
accepted  the  gift,  and  the  exercises  were  closed  by  singing. 


PROCEEDINGS  AND  RESOLUTIONS 


VARIOUS     ORGANIZATIONS 


OVERSEERS  OF  HARVARD  COLLEGE. 


BOSTON,  January  26,  1865. 

The  following  Preamble  and  Resolutions  were  prefaced  with 
remarks  by  the  Reverend  James  Walker,  D.  D.,  and  presented  to 
the  Board :  — 

Whereas  it  has  pleased  God  to  take  from  this  life  the 
Hon.  Edward  Everett,  a  distinguished  member  of  this 
Board  ;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  we  avail  ourselves  of  the  earliest  oppor 
tunity  to  record  our  sense  of  the  great  loss  which  Harvard 
College  has  sustained  in  the  death  of  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  of  her  sons. 

Resolved,  That,  as  one  branch  of  the  government  of  the 
college,  we  would  especially  acknowledge  his  early  servi 
ces  to  the  University  as  Professor  of  Greek  Literature, 
which  were  welcomed  with  so  much  enthusiasm  by  the 
scholars  of  that  day,  and  did  so  much  to  give  an  impulse 
to  classical  learning  in  this  country  ;  and  also  the  unsur 
passed  dignity  with  which,  in  later  life,  he  filled  the  office 
of  President,  his  administration  being  marked  by  all  his 
accustomed  care  and  thoroughness,  and  only  prevented  by 


296  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

its  brevity  from  becoming  one  of  the  most  useful  and 
brilliant  the  college  has  known. 

Resolved,  That,  as  members  of  this  Board,  we  regret 
that  we  are  no  longer  to  be  assisted  in  our  deliberations 
by  his  wisdom  and  experience  in  college  affairs,  nor  to 
have  before  us  his  example  in  the  faithful  discharge  of 
every  public  trust,  recommended  by  uniform  courtesy. 

Resolved,  That  we  also  sympathize  in  the  general 
mourning  for  the  death  of  a  great  and  good  man  ;  not 
forgetting  in  the  eminent  scholar,  the  enlightened  states 
man,  or  the  conspicuous  and  revered  citizen,  —  one  whom 
Providence  seemed  to  have  raised  up,  in  the  troubled 
state  of  the  country,  to  be  of  great  influence  in  restoring 
union  and  peace. 

Resolved,  That  the  secretary  be  requested  to  transmit 
a  copy  of  these  resolutions  to  the  family  of  Mr.  Everett. 

The  Preamble  and  Resolutions  were  seconded  in  an  appropriate 
address  by  Rev.  Artemas  B.  Muzzey ;  and  after  eulogistic  remarks 
by  His  Excellency  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  President 
of  the  Board,  and  Philip  H.  Sears,  Esq.,  Rev.  James  F.  Clarke, 
D.  D.,  David  H.  Mason,  Esq.,  and  Hon.  Thomas  Russell,  they 
were  adopted  by  a  unanimous  vote,  the  members  rising  from  their 
seats,  in  token  of  affirmation. 

Attest :  NATH'L  B.  SHURTLEFF, 

Secretary  of  the   Overseers. 


FACULTY  OF  HARVARD  COLLEGE. 


The  following  resolutions  in  honor  of  Mr.  Everett  were  adopted 
by  the  Faculty  of  Harvard  College,  January  18,  1865  :  — 

Resolved,  That  we  lament,  in  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett, 
the  loss  of  a  kind  friend,  an  honorable  citizen,  a  gifted, 
well-trained,  and  patriotic  statesman,  and  a  bright  example 
of  finished  scholarship. 

Resolved,  That  now,  when  another  thread  in  the  silver 
cord  of  living  ex-presidents  of  the  college  has  been  loosed, 
we  remember  with  gratitude  and  admiration  the  long  and 
varied  services  of  the  departed  to  the  college,  as  Student, 
Graduate,  Professor,  Governor,  President,  and  Overseer. 

Resolved,  That  as  members  of  the  Faculty  of  instruction 
and  government,  over  which  Mr.  Everett  formerly  pre 
sided  with  unsurpassed  dignity  and  gentleness,  we  delight 
to  trace  even  now  the  beneficent  influences  of  his  too 
brief  administration,  as  of  a  patient  and  watchful  guar 
dian,  an  inspiring  scholar,  and  a  Christian  gentleman. 

Resolved,  That  we  accept  the  invitation  of  the  Mayor 
of  Boston  to  attend  the  funeral  ceremonies  in  that  city. 

CAMBRIDGE,  January  18,  1865. 


STANDING  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  FIRST 
CHURCH. 


BOSTON,  January  17,  1865. 

At  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  Standing  Committee  of  the 
First  Church,  held  this  day,  with  members  of  the  congregation, 
G.  W.  Messinger,  and  S.  L.  Abbot,  the  Sub-Committee  ap 
pointed  for  that  purpose,  submitted  the  following  preamble  and 
resolutions,  which  were  unanimously  adopted :  - 

Whereas,  It  has  pleased  the  All- wise  Disposer  of  events 
to  remove  from  us,  by  sudden  death,  our  esteemed  fellow- 
worshipper  and  beloved  friend  EDWARD  EVERETT,  and, 

Whereas,  We  wish  to  put  on  record  an  expression  of 
our  sense  of  the  great  private  worth  which  distinguished 
him  no  less  than  his  public  virtues  ;  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That,  by  his  decease,  the  members  of  the 
First  Church  and  congregation  have  lost  one  strongly 
endeared  to  them  by  the  association  which  has  bound 
them  together  as  worshippers,  for  many  years  past. 

Resolved,  That  we  gratefully  recall  the  constant  inter 
est  which  our  departed  friend  took  in  the  welfare  of  our 
venerable  society ;  an  interest  which  he  manifested  to  the 
last  by  his  regular  attendance  on  the  offices  of  the  Sanct 
uary. 


STANDING   COMMITTEE   OF   THE  FIRST   CHURCH.         299 

Resolved,  That  we  shall  always  hold  his  example  in 
pre:ious  remembrance,  as  of  one  who,  while  he  dignified 
our  nation,  especially  in  her  hour  of  trial,  by  his  unselfish 
patriotism,  humanity,  and  generous  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  republican  liberty,  was  no  less  distinguished  for  the 
humility,  purity,  and  Christian  excellence  of  his  private 
life. 

Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  placed  on  the 
records  of  the  First  Church,  and  that  a  copy  be  transmit 
ted  to  the  family  of  the  deceased,  with  the  assurance  of 
our  most  tender  sympathy  in  this  hour  of  their  heavy 
bereavement. 

It  was  then 

Voted,  That  Thomas  B.  Wales,  Otis  Rich,  Samuel  L. 
Abbot,  Nathaniel  Thayer,  George  W.  Messinger,  John 
Collamore,  D.  W.  Salisbury,  Edward  Austin,  J.  Putnam 
Bradlee,  Turner  Sargent,  George  W.  Wales,  Edward 
Frothingham,  George  O.  Shattuck,  Joseph  L.  Henshaw, 
and  Samuel  H.  Gookin  of  the  congregation,  be  a  committee 
to  superintend  the  arrangements  at  the  church  during  the 
funeral  services  of  the  late  Edward  Everett,  and  to  confer 
with  the  committee  of  the  City  Government  in  the  matters 
relating  to  the  same. 

The  meeting  was  then  adjourned  sine  die. 

THOMAS   B.    WALES,    Chairman. 
GEORGE   O.    HARRIS,    Secretary. 


FRANKLIN  MEDAL  ASSOCIATION. 


Pursuant  to  a  call  in  the  newspapers,  the  Association  of  Franklin 
Medal  Scholars  met  in  the  Mercantile  Building,  Summer  Street, 
on  the  morning  of  January  19,  to  take  measures  in  honor  of  the 
memory  of  their  late  President,  —  Hon.  Edward  Everett.  Dr. 
M.  W.  Weld  was  chosen  Chairman. 

The  following  resolutions  were  offered  by  Mr.  Thomas  Gaf- 
field:  — 

Whereas,  It  hath  pleased  God  to  remove  by  the  hand 
of  death  our  late  President,  Edward  Everett : 

Resolved,  That  while  we  unite  with  the  head  of  the 
nation,  and  with  the  legislative  assemblies  of  the  city,  the 
state,  and  the  country,  in  mourning  the  loss  of  the  patriot 
and  statesman ;  with  the  lovers  of  liberty  throughout  the 
world,  in  lamenting  the  departure  of  one  of  its  noblest 
champions,  who,  in  the  hour  of  his  country's  trial,  came 
up  so  gloriously  to  the  defence  of  freedom  and  right,  and 
to  the  support  of  the  Government  and  its  defenders  on  the 
land  and  on  the  sea  ;  we  especially  deplore  the  loss  of 
one  who  was  the  great  American  scholar  ;  one  whom  we 
rejoice  to  know  was  nurtured  in  his  youth  in  those  public 
schools,  which  are  the  honor  of  our  city  and  our  Com- 


FRANKLIN   MEDAL   ASSOCIATION,  3()1 

monwealth ;  who  at  the  early  age  of  ten  years,  received 
the  Franklin  prize  for  superior  scholarship  at  the  North 
School,  and  at  the  age  of  twelve,  a  similar  token  at  the 
Latin  School;  whose  career  of  superiority  and  excellence 
in  scholarship  followed  him  throughout  his  college  course, 
and  made  him  at  an  early  period  of  life,  take  rank  among 
the  best  writers  and  the  most  accomplished  orators  of  the 
land,  and  placed  him  at  a  later  age  at  the  head  of  that 
University  which  he  always  loved,  and  which  always 
delighted  to  honor  its  most  distinguished  graduate. 

Resolved,  That  as  graduates  of  our  Public  Schools,  in 
which,  as  in  all  educational  institutions,  he  took  so  deep 
an  interest  to  the  last  year  of  his  life,  we  gratefully  revere 
the  memory  of  the  departed  scholar,  statesman,  and 
patriot,  and  heartily  commend  to  the  youth  of  our  city 
and  our  country,  the  study  of  his  writings,  so  full  of  wis 
dom  and  learning,  and  the  imitation  of  his  life,  so 
crowned  with  the  fruits  of  literary  industry,  with  the 
deeds  of  noble  patriotism,  and  the  works  of  true  Christian 
benevolence. 

Resolved,  That  we  most  deeply  sympathize  with  the 
family  of  the  deceased,  and  reverently  point  them  to  the 
consolations  of  that  Gospel,  which  he  so  earnestly  and 
eloquently  set  forth  in  the  days  of  his  early  manhood. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  Association  attend 
the  funeral  services  at  the  First  Church  in  Chauncy  Street, 
this  day. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  the  above  resolutions  be 
transmitted  by  the  secretary  to  the  family  of  the  de 
ceased. 


302  MEMORIAL   OF  EDWARD   EVERETT. 

After  remarks  by  Messrs.  Gaffield,  Stetson,  Harris,  and  Pratt, 
the  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted. 

Mr.  Gaffield  then  offered  the  following,  which  were  also  unani 
mously  adopted  :  — 

Resolved,  That  while  the  memory  of  Edward  Everett 
will  ever  be  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen, 
and  while  the  words  and  the  deeds  of  his  life  will  consti 
tute  his  noblest  monument,  we  cordially  unite  with  our 
fellow- citizens  in  any  movement  to  honor  his  worth  and 
commemorate  his  name. 

Resolved,  That  we  heartily  approve  of  the  proposition 
to  erect  a  statue  to  his  memory,  and  direct  that  our 
treasurer  pay  over  to  the  committee  appointed  for  the 
purpose  at  Faneuil  Hall,  on  the  18th  inst,  the  sum  of 
one  thousand  dollars,  as  the  subscription  of  the  Association 
of  Franklin  Medal  Scholars. 

It  was  moved  that  a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  by  the  chair 
to  represent  this  Association  at  the  chureh.  The  motion  was 
adopted,  and  the  following-named  gentlemen  were  appointed,  viz : 
Isaac  Harris,  Thomas  Gaffield,  S.  F.  Smith,  J.  C.  Pratt,  T.  W. 
Gould. 

The  meeting  then  dissolved. 


MERCANTILE  LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION. 


At  a  special  meeting  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association  of 
Boston,  held  on  Wednesday  evening,  January  18,  1865,  the  fol 
lowing  Resolutions  were  offered  by  Charles  H.  Frothingham,  and 
were  unanimously  adopted  :  — 

Whereas,  It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  remove  from 
us  by  death  our  late  eminent  and  illustrious  citizen,  Ed 
ward  Everett,  whose  loss  is  justly  regarded  as  a  national 
calamity,  and  strikes  with  unspeakable  sorrow  this  com 
munity  in  which  he  had  so  long  lived ;  we,  the  members 
of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association  of  Boston,  to  whom 
he  was  a  near  neighbor  and  sincere  friend  and  benefactor, 
desiring  to  express  our  affectionate  regard  for  his  memory, 
unanimously  adopt  the  following  resolutions  :  — 

Resolved,  That  we  are  profoundly  grateful  to  Divine 
Providence,  for  his  long  life  filled  with  honor  to  himself 
and  his  country ;  for  his  death  without  suffering,  and  for 
his  possession  of  all  his  glorious  faculties  to  the  last, 
unimpaired;  and,  while  humbly  submitting  to  the  inscrut 
able  decree  of  the  Great  Disposer  of  events,  we  cannot  but 
deplore  the  loss  to  American  literature  and  oratory  of 
their  brightest  ornament,  and  to  the  Union  of  its  warmest 
advocate,  whose  exalted  character,  and  lofty,  disinterested 
patriotism  would  have  exerted  an  influence,  at  home  and 


304  MEMORIAL    OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

abroad,  more  potent  than  any  other  citizen,  in  the  final 
settlement  of  our  existing  difficulties. 

Resolved,  That  we  will  remember  that  he  was  as  good 
as  he  was  great,  and  as  amiable  as  he  was  accomplished. 
Like  Washington,  whom  it  was  his  privilege  to  hold  up  to 
his  admiring  fellow-countrymen,  he  possessed  that  rare 
combination  of  qualities  which  constitutes  an  evenly  bal 
anced  mind.  Always  magnanimous  in  heart  and  action,  in 
justice  to  man  and  in  obedience  to  God,  he  ever  showed 
those  qualities  of  grace  and  loveliness  which  denote  the  true 
Christian  gentleman;  and  especially  thankful  are  we  for 
those  last  words  in  favor  of  "  Christian  retaliation  "  at  the 
meeting  in  aid  of  the  suffering  poor  of  Savannah. 

Resolved,  That  while  we  contemplate  the  noble  portrait 
of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  which  he  presented  to  us, 
and  endeavor  to  hold  dear  the  memory  and  revere  the 
name  and  character  of  Washington,  we  will  ever  associate 
with  that  name  that  of  our  late  distinguished  benefactor, 
and  we  will  proudly  preserve  his  bust  of  which  we  are 
the  fortunate  possessors. 

Resolved,  That  we  will  regard  him  as  an  example  for 
our  emulation  of  industry  in  every  station ;  of  refined 
culture,  and  of  patriotic  inspiration. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  family  of  the  deceased 
our  heartfelt  sympathy  and  condolence  in  this  season  of 
their  affliction,  and  as  a  further  token  of  our  respect  and 
love  for  his  memory  we  will  attend  his  funeral. 

A  true  copy  of  the  record, 

HENRY  C.  PYNE, 

Recording  Secretary. 


FllANKLIN  TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY. 


At  the  regular  monthly  meeting  of  the  Franklin  Typographical 
Society,  on  the  evening  of  February  4,  after  the  formal  business 
had  been  transacted,  the  President  alluded  to  the  decease  of  Mr. 
Everett ;  and  after  referring  to  the  great  loss  sustained  by  the  whole 
country,  recalled  to  notice  the  generous  services  which  Mr.  Everett 
rendered  the  Society  five  years  previously,  by  delivering  before 
them  his  address  on  the  life  and  character  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 
The  funds  of  the  Society  had  at  that  time  become  so  reduced  that 
it  was  much  straitened  in  providing  for  the  needs  of  its  sick  mem 
bers  ;  and  Mr.  Everett,  on  being  applied  to,  cheerfully  consented 
to  deliver  an  address  in  behalf  of  its  treasury,  the  committee  of 
arrangements  agreeing  to  give  him  the  remuneration  which  he 
Ordinarily  received  for  such  a  service.  When  payment  was  ten 
dered  to  him,  after  the  address,  Mr.  Everett  declined  compensation, 
saying  that  since  he  made  the  engagement  he  had  become  more  fully 
acquainted  than  before  with  the  charitable  objects  of  the  Society, 
and  that  he  had  derived  great  satisfaction  from  addressing  so  intel 
ligent  a  body  of  men,  with  whom,  he  remarked,  he  placed  himself 
in  magnetic  sympathy  more  readily  than  with  most  audiences  before 
which  he  was  accustomed  to  appear.  The  President  expressed  his 
conviction  that  this  act  of  benevolent  kindness,  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Everett,  had  been  of  lasting  benefit  to  the  Society,  by  inducing  men 
of  wealth  to  regard  its  claims  for  aid,  which  they  had  previously 
overlooked. 

When  the  President  had   concluded   his  remarks,  Mr.  Ambrose 
H.  Goodridge  moved  that  a  committee   of  three  be   appointed  by 
39 


306  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

the  Chair  to  report  a  series  of  resolutions,  expressive  of  the  senti 
ments  of  the  members,  in  relation  to  the  sad  event  to  which  allusion 
had  been  made.  The  Chair  appointed  as  the  Committee,  Messrs. 
Goodridge,  C.  W.  G.  Mansfield,  and  James  Cox,  who  subsequently 
reported  the  following  series  of  resolutions,  and  they  were  unani 
mously  adopted  :  — 

Resolved,  That  in  the  recent  decease  of  Edward  Everett, 
the  members  of  the  Franklin  Typographical  Society,  in 
common  with  the  community  in  which  he  lived,  and 
with  the  nation  of  whose  history  his  life  forms  so  impor 
tant  a  part,  feel  that  an  irreparable  loss  has  been  sustained 
by  every  good  and  patriotic  cause  and  institution  in  the 
country. 

Resolved,  That  throughout  the  long  and  public  career 
of  the  eminent  statesman,  whose  demise  we  mourn,  we 
recognize  the  qualities  of  rare  goodness  as  well  as  exalted 
greatness,  prompting  him  to  acts  of  charity  and  benevo 
lence,  in  which  he  engaged  with  unfaltering  zeal. 

Resolved^  That  we  remember  with  abiding  gratitude  the 
timely  and  important  aid  which  he  rendered  to  our  Society, 
a  few  years  since,  at  a  period  when  its  means  were  greatly 
reduced,  by  his  generous  and  voluntary  labors  in  behalf  of 
our  charitable  fund. 

Resolved^  That  we  tender  to  the  family  and  immediate 
friends  of  the  deceased  our  profound  sympathies  in  their 
bereavement. 

Resolved)  That  the  secretary  be  directed  to  transmit  a 
copy  of  these  resolutions  to  the  family  of  the  deceased, 
and  that  they  be  entered  upon  the  records  of  the  Society. 


MASSACHUSETTS  CHARITABLE  MECHANICS5 
'  ASSOCIATION. 


The  Government  of  this  Association  held  a  special  meeting  on 
Tuesday,  January  17,  in  the  afternoon,  to  consider  the  death  of 
Hon.  Edward  Everett,  an  honorary  member.  Joseph  T.  Bailey, 
Esq.,  President,  announced  the  sad  bereavement  which  had  called 
the  Trustees  together ;  and  Hon.  Wm.  W.  Clapp,  Jr.  offered  the 
following  preamble  and  resolutions,  which  were  unanimously 
adopted :  — 

The  death  of  the  Hon.  Edward  Everett  having  removed 
from  our  list  of  honorary  members  one,  who  for  many 
years  has  given  to  us  convincing  proof  of  his  interest  in 
our  Association,  therefore 

Resolved,  That,  in  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett,  we  feel 
the  loss  of  a  prized  friend,  a  wise  counsellor,  and  an 
honored  benefactor,  whose  intercourse  with  us  has  cheered 
and  encouraged  us,  whose  heart,  constantly  devoted  to 
our  good,  has  successfully  manifested  its  sincerity  in  kind 
ly  acts,  and  whose  gifted  mind  has  ever  sought  our 
benefit ;  whose  deep  sympathy  with  mechanical  pursuits 
and  interest  in  the  artisan  have  secured  for  him  the 
gratitude  and  respect  of  the  workingman  ;  and  whose 


308  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

associations  'with  us  we  regard  with  proud  satisfaction, 
enjoying  as  we  did,  so  long,  the  invigorating  influence  of 
his  massive  character. 

Resolved,  That  we  will  enter  upon  our  records  this 
mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Everett,  who  was 
held,  while  living,  in  the  highest  regard  by  every  member 
of  our  Association. 

Resolved,  That  the  government  will  attend  the  funeral 
of  Mr.  Everett,  with  such  members  of  the  Association  as 
wish  to  join  with  them  in  paying  this  tribute  of  respect. 


BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT  ASSOCIATION. 


A  special  meeting  of  the  directors  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument 
Association,  was  held  on  the  18th  of  January,  in  the  Council 
Chamber,  City  Hall,  to  take  suitable  action  upon  the  death  of  Hon. 
Edward  Everett,  who  was  one  of  the  Yice-Presidents  of  the 
Association.  His  Honor  Mayor  Lincoln  presided.  The  following 
resolutions  were  offered  by  W.  W.  Wheildon,  Esq.,  and  unani 
mously  adopted  by  the  meeting  :  — - 

Resolved,  That  the  government  of  this  Association  have 
learned  with  deep  emotion  the  death  of  their  late  asso 
ciate,  Edward  Everett,  whose  services  as  its  first  secre 
tary,  as  director  and  vice-president,  for  more  than  forty 
years,  have  been  so  generously  and  efficiently  rendered, 
and  whose  advice,  counsel,  and  transcendent  talents  have 
been  so  important  in  the  promotion  of  the  great  object  of 
its  organization. 

Resolved,  That  as  an  evidence  of  our  respect  for  his 
unblemished  character,  of  appreciation  of  his  disinter 
ested  labors,  of  acknowledgment  of  his  unvarying  cour 
tesy  and  kindness,  and  as  a  recognition  of  his  patriotic 
devotion  to  his  country,  this  Board  will  attend  his  funeral 
and  participate  in  those  honors  so  justly  due  to  his  dis 
tinguished  abilities  and  his  exalted  worth. 


310  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT. 

Resolved,  That  the  loss  of  one  who  was  always  ready 
and  present  when  needed ;  who  was  equally  good  and 
great ;  who  excelled  all  others  in  devotion  and  effort,  and 
was  constantly  outdoing  and  overdoing  himself,  leaves 
an  "  aching  void"  which  time  itself  may  not  fill. 

"  Now  he  is  gone!  vainly  and  wearily 
Groans  the  full  heart,  the  yearning  sorrow  flows  — 
Gone  !  and  all  the  zest  of  life  in  one  long  sigh, 
Goes  with  him  where  he  goes." 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  express  in 
suitable  form  that  respect  for  his  memory,  that  honor  for 
his  virtues,  and  that  gratitude  for  his  services,  entertained 
by  this  Association,  to  be  presented  at  its  next  annual 
meeting,  and  placed  enduringly  upon  its  records. 

The  following  gentlemen  were  appointed  to  constitute  the  com 
mittee  designated  in  the  resolutions  :  — 

11.  C.  Winthrop,  W.  W.  Wheildon,  J.  Mason  Warren,  Albert 
Fearing,  J.  H.  Thorndike,  Benjamin  T.  Reed,  Samuel  II.  Russell, 
Henry  A  Pierce,  F.  W.  Lincoln,  Jr.,  G.  W.  Warren. 

Voted,  That  the  Secretary  notify  the  Chairman  of  the 
City  Committee  that  the  Directors  will  attend  the  funeral 
of  Mr.  Everett  on  the  19th  instant;  and  that  the  members 
of  the  Association  be  requested  to  unite  with  them  on  the 
occasion. 

The  meeting  was  then  dissolved. 

Attest :  S.  F.  McCLEARY,  Secretary. 


LINCOLN  GUARD. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  First  Unattached  Company  of  Infantry, 
M.  Y.  M.  (Lincoln  Guard),  Capt.  Moses  E.  Bigelow,  at  their 
armory  in  South  Boston,  on  Monday  Evening,  January  16,  the 
following  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  :  — 

Wliereas,  Divine  Providence,  in  his  impartial  dealings 
with  man,  has,  by  the  very  sudden  decease  of  the  Hon. 
Edward  Everett,  of  this  State  and  city,  deprived  this 
country  of  one  of  its  firmest  friends,  in  this,  her  hour  of 
peril  : 

Resolved^  That  the  members  of  this  Company  honor  the 
departed  as  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  of  the  age,  as 
a  disinterested  politician,  and  as  a  scholar  and  orator  un 
equalled;  and  that  we  see  in  his  long  and  successful 
career,  a  bright  incentive  to  do  our  duty  well,  leaving  the 
reward  to  the  judgment  of  our  fellow-men. 

Resolved,  That  we,  in  common  with  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  her  more  humble  citizens,  truly  feel 
that  the  country  has  sustained  an  irreparable  loss,  which 
we  deeply  lament. 

Resolved,  That  our  commander  be  authorized  to  tender 
the  services  of  the  Company,  for  military  escort  and  fare- 


312  MEMORIAL   OF   EDWARD    EVERETT. 

well  honors  to  the  remains  of  this  truly  great  man,  to  his 
Honor  the  Mayor  or  such  persons  as  have  the  funeral 
obsequies  in  charge. 

Resolved,  That  the  flag  be  placed  at  half-mast  on  our 
armory,  until  after  the  funeral. 


EDWARD  EVERETT. 


Born  at  Dorchester,  Mass.  April  11,  1794. 
Attended  Village  School  in  Dorchester,  1797. 
Attended  school  in  North  Bennet  Street,  Boston,  1803. 
Attended  private  school,  Short  Street,  Boston,  1804. 
Attended  Public  Latin  School,  Boston,  1805-06. 
Prepared  for  College  at  Exeter  Academy,  1807. 
Entered  Harvard  College,  1807;  graduated  1811. 
Appointed  Tutor  of  Latin  at  Harvard  College,  1812. 
Pastor,  of  Brattle  Street  Church,  1813-14. 
Published  "  Defence  of  Christianity,"  1814, 
Professor  of  Greek  Literature  at  Harvard  College,  1815—25. 
Studied  at  University  of  Gottingen,  1816-17. 
Degree  of  P.  D.  conferred  at  Gottingen,  1817. 
Eeturned  from  Europe  in  1819. 
Editor  of  North  American  Review,  1820—23. 
Delivered  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Oration,  August,  26,  1824. 
Member  of  Congress  from  1825  to  1835. 
Degree  of  LL.  D.  conferred  at  Yale  College,  1833. 
Degree  of  LL.  D.  conferred  by  Harvard  College,  1835. 
Governor  of  Massachusetts  from  1836  to  1840. 
Sailed  for  Europe,  June,  1840. 
Minister  to  the  Court  of  St.  James,  1841-44. 
Degree  of  LL.  D.  conferred  by  University  of  Cambridge,  Eng 
land,  1842. 


314  MEMORIAL  OF   EDWAKD  EVEKETT. 

Degree  of  LL.  D.  conferred  by  Dublin  University,  Ireland, 
1842. 

Degree  of  J.  C.  D.  conferred  by  University  of  Oxford,  England, 
1843. 

President  of  Harvard  College,  1846-1849. 

Degree  of  LL.  D.  conferred  by  Dartmouth  College,  1849. 

Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  1852. 

Chosen  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  Public  Library,  1852. 

United  States  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  1853. 

Resigned  Senatorship,  May,  1855. 

Oration  on  Washington  (first  time),  February  22,  1856. 

Nominated  for  the  Vice-Presidency  of  United  States,  1860. 

Chairman  of  Commission  on  a  Military  Academy  for  Massachu 
setts,  1863. 

Chosen  Presidential  Elector,  1864. 

Address  in  aid  of  the  citizens  of  Savannah,  January  9,  1865. 

Died  in  Boston,  January  15,  1865. 

Obsequies  in  Boston,  January  19,  1865. 

[He  has  spoken  before  the  Municipal  Authorities  of  Boston  on 
the  following  occasions]  : — 

Boston  Public  School  Examination,  July  23,  1837. 

Dinner  in  Faneuil  Hall,  July  4,  1838. 

Railroad  Jubilee,  September  19,  1851. 

Dinner  to  Thomas  Baring,  September  16,  1852. 

Dinner  in  Faneuil  Hall,  July  4,  1853. 

Boston  School  Festival,  July  23,  1855. 

Dedication  of  Public  Library,  January  1,  1858. 

Dinner  in  honor  of  Mehemmed  Pasha,  May  25,  1858. 

On  the  death  of  Rufus  Choate,  Faneuil  Hall,  July,  1859. 

Eulogy  on  Daniel  Webster,  Music  Hall,  September  17,  1859. 


EDWARD   EVERETT.  315 

Dinner  to  the  Sanitary  Convention,  June,  1860. 
Oration  in  Music  Hall,  July  4,  1860. 
Dinner  to  officers  of  the  Russian  Fleet,  June  7,  1864. 
Reception  of  the  officers  and  crew  of   the  Kearsarge,   November 
10,  1864. 


WVEKSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRAEY, 
BERKELEY 


Boo**  not  returned  on  are 

volume  after  the 


50m-8,'26 


YD  12365 


